Coachella, CA Night Sky Brightness
Coachella, CA's night sky, measured from orbit
Satellite radiance puts Coachella in the rural band. Little local light dome. Most stars are visible; the Milky Way is faint but often findable away from town lights. That's brighter than 3.7% of the 3,206 US cities in this dataset.
Note the source: a satellite reading of upward light, not a visual Bortle scale reading. The two measure related but different things, explained in the Bortle scale guide.
Where to go for a darker sky near Coachella
Banning, CA, about 47 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the dark sky band, one step darker than Coachella. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.
Banning, CA is itself still a measured city, not a designated dark-sky park, this only compares against the 3,206 places this dataset covers.
How Coachella compares nationally
Coachella, CA has a population of about 45,165, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Coachella's position, 118 of 3,206, darkest to brightest, comes from the sampling method the methodology guide sets out.