Grimes, IA Night Sky Brightness
How dark is the sky in Grimes, IA?
Satellite radiance puts Grimes in the rural band. Little local light dome. Most stars are visible; the Milky Way is faint but often findable away from town lights. Only 9.7% of the 3,206 cities measured here read darker than Grimes.
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, covered fully in the Bortle scale guide.
The nearest darker sky to Grimes
Red Wing, MN, about 210 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the dark sky band, one step darker than Grimes. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.
Red Wing, MN is itself still a measured city, not a designated dark-sky park, this only compares against the 3,206 places this dataset covers.
Grimes against the rest of the dataset
About 17,266 people live in Grimes, IA, sized enough to appear in this dataset of 3,206 incorporated US cities. Ranked against the other 3,206 cities here by the methodology guide's own sampling, Grimes comes in at 309, darkest to brightest.