How dark is the sky in Columbia, PA?

Columbia'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. Only 34.1% of the 3,206 cities measured here read darker than Columbia.

Worth remembering: this is satellite radiance, not a ground observation. A true Bortle rating needs a human eye at night, this is the closest large-scale substitute.

How far Columbia is from a meaningfully darker sky

Pine Hill, NJ, about 82 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the rural band, one step darker than Columbia. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.

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

Columbia against the rest of the dataset

Columbia, PA has a population of about 10,399, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Among all 3,206 cities here, Columbia ranks 1,088 from darkest to brightest, 1 being the darkest measured.