The polar night started this Thursday, November 18 in Barrow, Alaska, where they will not see sunlight for 67 days, that is, until January 23, 2022, because the star does not rise north of the Arctic Circle due to the inclination of the Earth.
Every year, the residents of Barrow, a community of 4,900, gather on November 18 or 19 to see the last sunset in the far north of Alaska.
The polar night is a phenomenon caused by the inclination of the Earth’s axis that causes the absence of sunlight 24 hours a day in the Arctic and Antarctic Circle. During those 67 days, the Sun does not reach high enough to pass above the horizon in the regions closest to the north and south poles.
In addition, in the polar night the cold intensifies and the average temperature reaches minus 20 degrees Celsius in January. However, the inhabitants of Barrow are used to this phenomenon so they do not change their daily routine, although they spend more time indoors, according to National Geographic.
Other cities with polar night
Barrow is not the only town where the polar night lasts for more than a month. The largest city in the North Pole is Murmansk, a town in Russia with almost 300 thousand inhabitants, where the phenomenon extends from December 2 to January 11, with around 40 days without sunlight.
However the Murmansk port remains active during the polar night thanks to the warm marine current of the North Atlantic, which prevents the freezing of its waters, unlike other places that are at the same latitude.
Tromso is a Norwegian city known as the “cultural capital” of the Arctic which has a polar night from November 27 to January 15 of the following year. However, this means an advantage because with the arrival of this phenomenon the high season of tourism begins, in which thousands of travelers come to the town to practice winter sports or see the northern lights.
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