San Clemente, CA: how dark is the sky here?

Satellite radiance puts San Clemente 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. Only 18.1% of the 3,206 cities measured here read darker than San Clemente.

This comes from a satellite measuring light radiating upward, not a person's eyes on the ground, so it isn't the same as a Bortle class, though the two track each other closely.

How far San Clemente is from a meaningfully darker sky

Laguna Beach, CA, about 11 miles away as the crow flies, measures in the rural band, one step darker than San Clemente. Actual driving distance will run longer than that straight-line figure.

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

How San Clemente compares nationally

San Clemente, CA has a population of about 62,627, one of 3,206 US cities of 10,000 or more residents in this dataset. San Clemente places 579 of 3,206 cities in this dataset's darkest-to-brightest order.