Oakdale, CA Night Sky Brightness
What the night sky looks like over Oakdale, CA
Oakdale reads as urban on this dataset's scale. Sky glow overhead most nights. Typically only planets, the Moon, and a handful of the brightest stars are visible. Oakdale's sky is brighter than 93.6% of the 3,206 cities in this dataset.
The number comes from orbit, not a stargazer's logbook, so treat it as an estimate of sky glow rather than a certified Bortle class - the Bortle scale guide covers why.
How far Oakdale is from a meaningfully darker sky
The closest place in this dataset with a meaningfully darker sky is Riverbank, CA, roughly 6 miles away in a straight line, rated suburban edge. Road distance will be more.
Riverbank, CA is itself still a measured city, not a designated dark-sky park, this only compares against the 3,206 places this dataset covers.
Oakdale against the rest of the dataset
Oakdale, CA has a population of about 23,209, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. Among all 3,206 cities here, Oakdale ranks 2,984 from darkest to brightest, 1 being the darkest measured, by the sampling the methodology guide documents.