Hoover, AL: how dark is the sky here?

Satellite radiance puts Hoover in the urban band. Sky glow overhead most nights. Typically only planets, the Moon, and a handful of the brightest stars are visible. That's brighter than 90.3% 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 Hoover is from a meaningfully darker sky

5 miles from Hoover, straight-line, sits Pelham, AL, the nearest city here with a darker sky than Hoover's own urban band.

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

How Hoover compares nationally

Hoover, AL counts roughly 93,013 residents, among the 3,206 US cities this site tracks. Hoover places 2,879 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.