Bellevue, WA: how dark is the sky here?

Bellevue's sky measures suburban edge here. A noticeable glow near the horizon. Brighter stars and constellations are easy to pick out; the Milky Way is washed out. That's brighter than 21.5% of the 3,206 US cities in this dataset.

This comes from a satellite measuring light radiating upward, not a person's eyes on the ground, so it isn't the same as a Bortle class, though the two track each other closely.

How far Bellevue is from a meaningfully darker sky

4 miles from Bellevue, straight-line, sits Mercer Island, WA, the nearest city here with a darker sky than Bellevue's own suburban edge band.

Mercer Island, WA is itself still a measured city, not a designated dark-sky park, this only compares against the 3,206 places this dataset covers.

How Bellevue compares nationally

About 154,377 people live in Bellevue, WA, sized enough to appear in this dataset of 3,206 incorporated US cities. Bellevue places 686 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.