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ERA5 climatology · 2015–2024
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The best month.

Pick a month and every watch point is ranked by its real monthly cloud cover — 2015–2024 reanalysis means, lower is better — with the spots that have no true darkness that month set apart. Or pick a spot for its twelve-month chart.

Clear sky by month · Abisko100 − mean cloud cover · higher is better

Clearest dark months here (outlined): Feb, Mar, Sep. Faint: no night with an hour of astronomical darkness — midnight sun (Jun, Jul); white nights, twilight only (Apr, May, Aug). Part-faint months are dark on some nights only: dark until 28 Mar; dark from 14 Sep. ERA5 reanalysis, 2015–2024 monthly mean. Climatology, not a forecast — a regional ~25 km grid; local microclimates are not captured. Darkness & moon calendar → Best month, all spots →

● Tonight at Abisko — live →

Clearest dark skies in December

The aurora belt · Kp 3 or lessAll 70 spots

Top three: Coldfoot / Bettles, Fairbanks, Fort McMurray. 37 watch points with at least one night of an hour's astronomical darkness this month, ranked by clear sky (100 − mean cloud cover); dark hours are the mean over the month's dark nights, and a part-dark month says when its darkness starts or ends. Cloud is only one of the three conditions — a clear Kp 9 spot is almost never lit; the threshold shown is each spot's own.

  1. 01Coldfoot / Bettles North America · N35%13.1hKp 0+
  2. 02Fairbanks North America · N33%12.9hKp 1+
  3. 03Fort McMurray North America · N32%12.3hKp 3+
  4. 04Ilulissat Greenland · N29%13.3hKp 0+
  5. 05Nuuk Greenland · N27%12.8hKp 1+
  6. 06Yellowknife North America · N27%12.7hKp 1+
  7. 07Denali North America · N26%12.7hKp 2+
  8. 08Kangerlussuaq Greenland · N25%13.1hKp 0+
  9. 09Reykjavík Northern Europe · N25%12.8hKp 2+
  10. 10Whitehorse North America · N22%12.6hKp 3+
  11. 11Lofoten Islands Northern Europe · N21%13.2hKp 1+
  12. 12Iqaluit North America · N21%12.8hKp 1+
  13. 13Faroe Islands (Tórshavn) Northern Europe · N21%12.7hKp 3+
  14. 14Svalbard (Longyearbyen) Northern Europe · N20%15.1hKp 0+
  15. 15Svolvær Northern Europe · N20%13.2hKp 2+
  16. 16Dawson City North America · N20%12.8hKp 1+
  17. 17Senja Northern Europe · N18%13.4hKp 1+
  18. 18Kirkenes Northern Europe · N18%13.4hKp 1+
  19. 19Kiruna Northern Europe · N18%13.2hKp 2+
  20. 20Alta Northern Europe · N17%13.4hKp 1+
  21. 21Anchorage North America · N17%12.6hKp 3+
  22. 22Utqiaġvik (Barrow) North America · N16%13.6hKp 0+
  23. 23Inari Northern Europe · N16%13.3hKp 1+
  24. 24Churchill North America · N16%12.4hKp 1+
  25. 25Ivalo Northern Europe · N15%13.3hKp 2+
  26. 26Nellim Northern Europe · N15%13.3hKp 2+
  27. 27Iceland (countrywide) Northern Europe · N15%12.9hKp 2+
  28. 28Oulu Northern Europe · N15%12.9hKp 3+
  29. 29Lyngen Northern Europe · N14%13.4hKp 1+
  30. 30Murmansk / Kola Peninsula Northern Europe · N14%13.3hKp 2+
  31. 31Rovaniemi Northern Europe · N14%13hKp 2+
  32. 32Tromsø Northern Europe · N12%13.4hKp 1+
  33. 33Saariselkä Northern Europe · N12%13.3hKp 2+
  34. 34Akureyri Northern Europe · N12%13hKp 1+
  35. 35Skibotn Northern Europe · N9%13.4hKp 1+
  36. 36Abisko Northern Europe · N9%13.2hKp 1+
  37. 37Kilpisjärvi Northern Europe · N8%13.3hKp 1+
clear = 100 − mean cloud cover · dark = mean hours of astronomical dark · glow = the spot's Kp for a glow

Cloud: Open-Meteo Historical Weather API (ERA5 reanalysis), cloud_cover_mean (daily), averaged by calendar month, 2015–2024. Climatology, not a forecast — a regional ~25 km grid; local microclimates (a valley's "blue hole") are not captured. Darkness: astronomical (sun below −18°) computed for the 15th of the month at each spot. Night-by-night darkness & moon → Season sheet (PDF) → Plan the trip →