Skip to content
ERA5 climatology · 2015–2024
When to go

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 · Edmonton100 − mean cloud cover · higher is better

Clearest dark months here (outlined): Aug, Sep, Oct. Faint: no night with an hour of astronomical darkness — white nights, twilight only (Jun). Part-faint months are dark on some nights only: dark until 11 May; dark from 31 Jul. 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 Edmonton — live →

Clearest dark skies in February

The aurora belt · Kp 3 or lessAll 70 spots

Top three: Yellowknife, Fairbanks, Coldfoot / Bettles. 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. 01Yellowknife North America · N41%10hKp 1+
  2. 02Fairbanks North America · N39%9.9hKp 1+
  3. 03Coldfoot / Bettles North America · N39%9.7hKp 0+
  4. 04Dawson City North America · N38%9.9hKp 1+
  5. 05Fort McMurray North America · N36%10.1hKp 3+
  6. 06Whitehorse North America · N35%10hKp 3+
  7. 07Denali North America · N32%10hKp 2+
  8. 08Ilulissat Greenland · N28%9.6hKp 0+
  9. 09Iqaluit North America · N27%9.9hKp 1+
  10. 10Kangerlussuaq Greenland · N26%9.7hKp 0+
  11. 11Churchill North America · N25%10.1hKp 1+
  12. 12Anchorage North America · N25%10hKp 3+
  13. 13Faroe Islands (Tórshavn) Northern Europe · N24%10hKp 3+
  14. 14Lofoten Islands Northern Europe · N23%9.7hKp 1+
  15. 15Svolvær Northern Europe · N22%9.7hKp 2+
  16. 16Kiruna Northern Europe · N22%9.7hKp 2+
  17. 17Oulu Northern Europe · N21%9.9hKp 3+
  18. 18Senja Northern Europe · N21%9.6hKp 1+
  19. 19Kirkenes Northern Europe · N21%9.5hKp 1+
  20. 20Svalbard (Longyearbyen) Northern Europe · N21%7.9hKp 0+
  21. 21Nuuk Greenland · N20%9.9hKp 1+
  22. 22Reykjavík Northern Europe · N20%9.9hKp 2+
  23. 23Inari Northern Europe · N20%9.6hKp 1+
  24. 24Rovaniemi Northern Europe · N19%9.8hKp 2+
  25. 25Ivalo Northern Europe · N19%9.6hKp 2+
  26. 26Nellim Northern Europe · N19%9.6hKp 2+
  27. 27Alta Northern Europe · N18%9.5hKp 1+
  28. 28Utqiaġvik (Barrow) North America · N18%9.4hKp 0+
  29. 29Saariselkä Northern Europe · N17%9.6hKp 2+
  30. 30Murmansk / Kola Peninsula Northern Europe · N17%9.6hKp 2+
  31. 31Lyngen Northern Europe · N17%9.5hKp 1+
  32. 32Tromsø Northern Europe · N16%9.5hKp 1+
  33. 33Akureyri Northern Europe · N15%9.8hKp 1+
  34. 34Skibotn Northern Europe · N14%9.6hKp 1+
  35. 35Abisko Northern Europe · N14%9.6hKp 1+
  36. 36Iceland (countrywide) Northern Europe · N12%9.9hKp 2+
  37. 37Kilpisjärvi Northern Europe · N10%9.6hKp 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 →