A town in the northernmost city in the U.S. will not see another sunset until August as it welcomes the ‘midnight sun.’
WASHINGTON — The northernmost city in the U.S. has seen its last sunset for the next 84 days, entering its annual period of endless sunlight.
The town of Utqiagvik, Alaska, saw the sun rise above the horizon on Sunday at 2:57 a.m. local time and it won’t see a sunset until Aug. 2, according to the National Weather Service.
According to the weather agency, this period of endless daylight is called the midnight sun season or a polar day. It’s when communities north of the Arctic Circle get non-stop daylight in the summer while the northern hemisphere is tilted toward the sun.
While a never-ending sun may sound fun, the town also experiences the inverse. A polar night happens nearly 6 months after, signaling a period of no sunlight and months of darkness. The sun will set in mid-November and won’t rise again until mid-January.
According to TimeandDate, Alaska is the only place in the U.S. that experiences a midnight sun. Additionally, parts of Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Russia also experience both phenomena.
Utqiaġvik, Alaska, has a population of about 4,500 people.
When is the summer solstice?
The summer solstice, the official start of summer, is on Sunday, June 21.
For those north of the equator, the solstice marks the longest day and the shortest night of the year. The Earth spins on a tilt as it revolves around the sun. The summer solstice occurs for Earth’s upper half when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted most closely toward the sun.
Around the same time, those south of the equator will see the shortest day of the year, known as the winter solstice.
The Southern Hemisphere will see less than 12 hours of daylight while the northern half of the Earth basks in daylight longer than 12 hours, according to NASA.
After June 21, days will gradually grow shorter in the Northern Hemisphere, with each sunset arriving slightly earlier than the last. This slow transition continues until the winter solstice in December, when the cycle reverses, and daylight begins its gradual return.
When does summer start?
The summer solstice marks the beginning of astronomical summer each year, typically falling between June 20 and June 22.
In meteorology, the official start of the summer season is June 1, marking the beginning of the three warmest months of the year in the northern hemisphere.