Paducah, KY's night sky, measured from orbit

Satellite radiance puts Paducah in the suburban edge band. 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 19.3% 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.

The nearest darker sky to Paducah

The closest place in this dataset with a meaningfully darker sky is Clarksville, TN, roughly 80 miles away in a straight line, rated rural. Road distance will be more.

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

How Paducah compares nationally

About 26,712 people live in Paducah, KY, sized enough to appear in this dataset of 3,206 incorporated US cities. Paducah places 615 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.