Kirkland, WA Night Sky Brightness
Kirkland, WA's night sky, measured from orbit
Kirkland 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. That's brighter than 16.2% 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 Kirkland
6 miles from Kirkland, straight-line, sits Lake Forest Park, WA, the nearest city here with a darker sky than Kirkland's own suburban edge band.
Lake Forest Park, WA is itself still a measured city, not a designated dark-sky park, this only compares against the 3,206 places this dataset covers.
How Kirkland compares nationally
Kirkland, WA has a population of about 95,499, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Kirkland's position, 517 of 3,206, darkest to brightest, comes from the sampling method the methodology guide sets out.