Kelso, WA: how dark is the sky here?

Kelso reads as suburban edge on this dataset's scale. A noticeable glow near the horizon. Brighter stars and constellations are easy to pick out; the Milky Way is washed out. Kelso's sky is brighter than 29.9% of the 3,206 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 Kelso is from a meaningfully darker sky

49 miles from Kelso, straight-line, sits Lake Oswego, OR, the nearest city here with a darker sky than Kelso's own suburban edge band.

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

How Kelso compares nationally

Kelso, WA counts roughly 12,737 residents, among the 3,206 US cities this site tracks. Kelso places 953 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.