Alaska will live more than 67 days without sunlight. Due to the tilt of the Earth, the Sun does not rise high enough to provide light in the Arctic Circle, which generates this spectacular phenomenon better known as polar night.
In other words, the polar night begins in Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow), Alaska. The next sunrise will be on January 23, 2024, after 1608 hours of darkness. Although it is a fact that sounds drastic, Alaskans are already accustomed to it, since it is a phenomenon that is repeated every year.
Polar night, the event that leaves Alaska without sunlight
The well-known polar night will begin this November 18 in Barrow, Alaska, where they will not see the light of the Sun for 67 days, that is, until January 23, 2024, because the star does not rise north of the Arctic Circle for the tilt of the Earth. Every year, the residents of Barrow, a community of 4,900 people, gather on November 18 or 19 to watch the last sunset in the far north of Alaska. But how or where does it occur?
During this phenomenon, the cold intensifies and the average temperature reaches around -20º C in January; However, the inhabitants of Barrow continue with their daily routine, although they accumulate more time indoors (or on visits that last for days) due to the inclement winter. This is the only populated place where the polar night lasts more than a month.
Another place that suffers from this phenomenon is the Russian city and the largest in the Arctic Circle; Murmansk, a city with almost 300 thousand inhabitants, where the polar night extends from December 2 to January 11, approximately 40 days without sunlight. In fact, unlike other bodies of water found in the At the same latitude, the port of Murmansk (one of the European epicenters of coal exports) remains active during the polar night thanks to the warm sea current of the North Atlantic, which prevents its waters from freezing.
This story was written in Spanish by Perla Vallejo in Ecoosfera
