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 · Mefjordvær100 − mean cloud cover · higher is better

Clearest dark months here (outlined): Jan, Mar, Oct. 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 25 Mar; dark from 17 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 Mefjordvær — live →

Clearest dark skies in October

The aurora belt · Kp 3 or lessAll 70 spots

Top three: Fort McMurray, Nuuk, Ilulissat. 46 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. 01Fort McMurray North America · N35%9.4hKp 3+
  2. 02Nuuk Greenland · N34%8.9hKp 1+
  3. 03Ilulissat Greenland · N33%8.3hKp 0+
  4. 04Fairbanks North America · N30%8.9hKp 1+
  5. 05Kangerlussuaq Greenland · N29%8.6hKp 0+
  6. 06Lofoten Islands Northern Europe · N29%8.4hKp 1+
  7. 07Dawson City North America · N28%8.9hKp 1+
  8. 08Coldfoot / Bettles North America · N28%8.6hKp 0+
  9. 09Svolvær Northern Europe · N28%8.4hKp 2+
  10. 10Tungeneset Northern Europe · N27%8.2hKp 1+
  11. 11Mefjordvær Northern Europe · N27%8.2hKp 1+
  12. 12Anchorage North America · N26%9.2hKp 3+
  13. 13Gryllefjord Northern Europe · N26%8.3hKp 1+
  14. 14Finnsnes Northern Europe · N25%8.3hKp 1+
  15. 15Whitehorse North America · N24%9.2hKp 3+
  16. 16Denali North America · N24%9hKp 2+
  17. 17Oulu Northern Europe · N24%8.8hKp 3+
  18. 18Reykjavík Northern Europe · N23%8.9hKp 2+
  19. 19Kiruna Northern Europe · N23%8.5hKp 2+
  20. 20Senja Northern Europe · N23%8.3hKp 1+
  21. 21Kirkenes Northern Europe · N23%8.2hKp 1+
  22. 22Yellowknife North America · N22%9.1hKp 1+
  23. 23Inari Northern Europe · N22%8.3hKp 1+
  24. 24Faroe Islands (Tórshavn) Northern Europe · N21%9.1hKp 3+
  25. 25Rovaniemi Northern Europe · N21%8.7hKp 2+
  26. 26Ivalo Northern Europe · N21%8.4hKp 2+
  27. 27Vík Northern Europe · N20%9hKp 2+
  28. 28Nellim Northern Europe · N20%8.3hKp 2+
  29. 29Tromsø Northern Europe · N20%8.2hKp 1+
  30. 30Churchill North America · N19%9.3hKp 1+
  31. 31Þingvellir Northern Europe · N19%8.9hKp 2+
  32. 32Mývatn Northern Europe · N19%8.8hKp 1+
  33. 33Alta Northern Europe · N19%8.1hKp 1+
  34. 34Iqaluit North America · N18%9hKp 1+
  35. 35Snæfellsnes (Kirkjufell) Northern Europe · N18%8.9hKp 2+
  36. 36Saariselkä Northern Europe · N18%8.4hKp 2+
  37. 37Murmansk / Kola Peninsula Northern Europe · N18%8.3hKp 2+
  38. 38Lyngen Northern Europe · N18%8.2hKp 1+
  39. 39Jökulsárlón Northern Europe · N17%8.9hKp 2+
  40. 40Akureyri Northern Europe · N15%8.8hKp 1+
  41. 41Svalbard (Longyearbyen) Northern Europe · N· dark from 9 Oct14%6.4hKp 0+
  42. 42Abisko Northern Europe · N13%8.4hKp 1+
  43. 43Skibotn Northern Europe · N13%8.3hKp 1+
  44. 44Utqiaġvik (Barrow) North America · N13%7.9hKp 0+
  45. 45Iceland (countrywide) Northern Europe · N12%8.9hKp 2+
  46. 46Kilpisjärvi Northern Europe · N10%8.3hKp 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 →