What months is it always light in Alaska?
For those two hours between sunrise and sunset, it's basically dusk or dawn because it never actually gets dark. This all-day daylight occurs from May 17 through July 27 in Fairbanks.
Alaska is not actually dark for six months of the year, even in our northern cities. The entire state experiences varying hours of sunlight and darkness all year long. The long, dark hours of the winter season are due to Alaska's location on the globe.
Alaska Gets Six Months of 24-Hour Sunlight and Darkness
Interestingly, this myth was perpetrated by our science books for many years. Only the furthest north and south points have equal parts daylight and darkness throughout the year, and Alaska isn't north enough to experience six months of either extreme.
- Utqiaġvik, Alaska experiences darkness from November to January every year.
- The phenomenon is called a polar night.
- The sun won't rise in Utqiaġvik again until January 23.
In fact, the northernmost city in America – Utqiaġvik, Alaska, formerly known as Barrow – has near-constant darkness from mid- to late November until late January because the sun never rises during that 60-plus-day period.
Depending where you are within the Arctic Circle, polar nights will last from one day to six months!
That depends on where in Alaska you live. The farther north you go, the longer the day. Just north of Fairbanks, the day is 24 hours long. In Fairbanks, there are nearly 22 hours of daylight, about 19.5 hours in Anchorage and 18.2 hours in Juneau.
The town of Utqiaġvik, Alaska — the northernmost town in the US — experiences a polar night every year, beginning in mid-November and ending in mid-January. That means that once the sun sets in November, residents won't see daylight for two months.
The midnight sun is a natural phenomenon that occurs during the summer in places south of the Antarctic Circle and north of the Arctic Circle – including Northern Norway. The earth is rotating at a tilted axis relative to the sun, and during the summer months, the North Pole is angled towards our star.
According to the World Meteorological Organization, Yuma (Arizona) is the sunniest place on earth. It has a total of 11 hours of sunlight in winter and up to 13 in summer.
Does it get dark in Alaska in August?
It starts getting darker in Alaska in August, though you'll still have longer days than most of the country, with sunrise at around 6:30 am and sunset at about 9:30 pm.
The June solstice (summer solstice) in Anchorage is at 1:13 am on Tuesday, June 21, 2022. In terms of daylight, this day is 13 hours, 54 minutes longer than the December solstice. In most locations north of the equator, the longest day of the year is around this date.
This Alaskan town won't see the sun for 65 days
The town of about 4,000 people is now beginning its 65-day period of darkness, known as polar night.
Summer in Alaska – May through September – first appears in the Inside Passage region and moves its way north, carried along by lengthening daylight hours. May is generally the driest month across the state, even in the temperate rainforest of the Inside Passage.
Alaska is a large state and depending on where you are, the winter solstice experience can be dramatically different. In Barrow, the northernmost place in Alaska, there are 67 days of darkness. But in Fairbanks, right in the middle of the Interior, there are almost four hours of daylight on solstice.
Blame our elliptical orbit
The discrepancy is caused by the Earth's elliptical orbit around the Sun. In early January the Earth is closest to the Sun and as a consequence, it is moving fastest in its orbit.
Svalbard, Norway (for the Polar Night)
Svalbard is a group of islands between Norway and the North Pole and is pretty much as far north as you can go without joining an arctic science expedition.
Located more than 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle, Tromsø, Norway, is home to extreme light variation between seasons. During the Polar Night, which lasts from November to January, the sun doesn't rise at all.
Unfortunately, Alaska is also known for being one of the most expensive states. As of January 2021, the cost of living in Alaska was 24.09% higher than the national average.
How much does it cost to live in Alaska?
Average Cost of Living in Alaska: $48,739 per year
Data gathered by MERIC in the third quarter of 2021 ranked Alaska as the state with the seventh highest cost of living.
There are plenty of beaches and lakes where people can enjoy swimming, wading and playing in the sand. If you're visiting Alaska, or if you've been living there for a long time, you have a lot to learn about the different outdoor swimming areas that Alaska has to offer.
The axis or tilt of the earth is what primarily accounts for the extraordinary periods of daylight and darkness at the poles because it is during these times that the land in the northern part of Alaska is tilted either directly into or far away from the sun.
Norway is famous across the world for its beauty and it is one of the richest countries in the world. Do you know that there is a place in the world where the sun sets at 12:43 in the night and rises again after only 40 minutes? This stunning view is witnessed at Hammerfest town in Northern Norway.
Barrow, Alaska
Interestingly, from early November, the sun does not rise for 30 consecutive days. This period without sun rise is known as the polar night.