McAllen, TX's night sky, measured from orbit

Satellite radiance puts McAllen 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 86.7% 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.

Where to go for a darker sky near McAllen

5 miles from McAllen, straight-line, sits Mission, TX, the nearest city here with a darker sky than McAllen's own urban band.

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

How McAllen compares nationally

McAllen, TX counts roughly 148,782 residents, among the 3,206 US cities this site tracks. McAllen places 2,764 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.