McAllen, TX Night Sky Brightness
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, explained in the Bortle scale guide.
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's position, 2,764 of 3,206, darkest to brightest, comes from the sampling method the methodology guide sets out.