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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 · Anchorage100 − mean cloud cover · higher is better

Clearest dark months here (outlined): Mar, Apr, Nov. Faint: no night with an hour of astronomical darkness — white nights, twilight only (May, Jun, Jul). Part-faint months are dark on some nights only: dark until 16 Apr; dark from 25 Aug. 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 Anchorage — live →

Clearest dark skies in March

The aurora belt · Kp 3 or lessAll 70 spots

Top three: Yellowknife, Dawson City, 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 · N42%6.8hKp 1+
  2. 02Dawson City North America · N41%6.4hKp 1+
  3. 03Coldfoot / Bettles North America · N40%5.3hKp 0+
  4. 04Fairbanks North America · N39%6.2hKp 1+
  5. 05Fort McMurray North America · N38%7.7hKp 3+
  6. 06Whitehorse North America · N37%7.1hKp 3+
  7. 07Anchorage North America · N35%7hKp 3+
  8. 08Oulu Northern Europe · N35%6.2hKp 3+
  9. 09Kiruna Northern Europe · N· dark until 29 Mar35%5.3hKp 2+
  10. 10Denali North America · N34%6.7hKp 2+
  11. 11Inari Northern Europe · N· dark until 26 Mar33%5.3hKp 1+
  12. 12Rovaniemi Northern Europe · N32%5.7hKp 2+
  13. 13Ivalo Northern Europe · N· dark until 27 Mar32%5.2hKp 2+
  14. 14Ilulissat Greenland · N· dark until 26 Mar31%5.1hKp 0+
  15. 15Nellim Northern Europe · N· dark until 27 Mar31%5.1hKp 2+
  16. 16Saariselkä Northern Europe · N· dark until 28 Mar30%5.2hKp 2+
  17. 17Iqaluit North America · N29%6.5hKp 1+
  18. 18Kirkenes Northern Europe · N· dark until 24 Mar29%5.2hKp 1+
  19. 19Svalbard (Longyearbyen) Northern Europe · N· dark until 3 Mar29%2.4hKp 0+
  20. 20Kangerlussuaq Greenland · N27%5.5hKp 0+
  21. 21Lofoten Islands Northern Europe · N· dark until 28 Mar27%5.3hKp 1+
  22. 22Svolvær Northern Europe · N· dark until 28 Mar27%5.3hKp 2+
  23. 23Murmansk / Kola Peninsula Northern Europe · N· dark until 26 Mar27%5.2hKp 2+
  24. 24Nuuk Greenland · N26%6.4hKp 1+
  25. 25Churchill North America · N25%7.5hKp 1+
  26. 26Reykjavík Northern Europe · N25%6.4hKp 2+
  27. 27Senja Northern Europe · N· dark until 25 Mar23%5.2hKp 1+
  28. 28Alta Northern Europe · N· dark until 24 Mar23%5hKp 1+
  29. 29Utqiaġvik (Barrow) North America · N· dark until 20 Mar23%4.9hKp 0+
  30. 30Faroe Islands (Tórshavn) Northern Europe · N22%6.9hKp 3+
  31. 31Tromsø Northern Europe · N· dark until 24 Mar20%5.2hKp 1+
  32. 32Kilpisjärvi Northern Europe · N· dark until 26 Mar20%5.2hKp 1+
  33. 33Lyngen Northern Europe · N· dark until 25 Mar20%5.1hKp 1+
  34. 34Akureyri Northern Europe · N19%5.9hKp 1+
  35. 35Abisko Northern Europe · N· dark until 28 Mar19%5.2hKp 1+
  36. 36Skibotn Northern Europe · N· dark until 25 Mar18%5.2hKp 1+
  37. 37Iceland (countrywide) Northern Europe · N16%6.3hKp 2+
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 →