Alaska town sees last sunset until August as 84 days of daylight begins
On Saturday, the sun rose at 2:51 a.m. for the town, and it won't set again until 1:55 a.m. on Aug. 2, totaling 84 days of continuous daylight as the sun instead circles the horizon.
FILE: Capturing Alaska's polar night
Photographer Mark Mahaney ( from California) traveled to Utqiagvik, Alaksa in 2019 to capture the final days of the season’s polar night. He documented the darkness for 12 days.
UTQIAGVIK, Alaska– The town at the northern tip of Alaska has seen its last moment of darkness for nearly three months.
Utqiagvik experiences this phenomenon known to locals as "midnight sun" every year in the weeks surrounding the summer solstice.
UTQIAGVIK, ALASKA - AUGUST 10: Seen from an aerial view, homes stand along the Arctic Ocean on August 10, 2023 in Utqiagvik, Alaska. Located above the Arctic Circle, Utqiagvik is the northernmost settlement in the United States.
(John Moore / Getty Images)
It's part of Northern Alaska that the only place in the U.S. that experiences 24-hour daylight for a part of the year.
On Saturday, the sun rose at 2:51 a.m. for the town, and it won't set again until 1:55 a.m. on Aug. 2, totaling 84 days of continuous daylight as the sun instead circles the horizon.
WHY NORTHERN LIGHTS DISPLAYS ARE STRONGER AROUND SPRING, AUTUMN EQUINOXES
CANADA - CIRCA 2003: Midnight sun over Nunavut Territories, Melville Peninsula, Canada.
(DeAgostini / Getty Images)
Midnight sun occurs because of the Northern Hemisphere's tilt toward the sun during the late spring and summer, peaking on the summer solstice on June 20. All areas north of the Arctic Circle at 66.3 degrees north latitude will have some days of 24-hour daylight.
In the winter, the reverse occurs as the Northern Hemisphere tilts away from the sun, and Utqiagvik joins those north of the Arctic Circle in experiencing polar night. This is when the sun doesn't rise above the horizon for several weeks, typically starting in November and ending sometime in January the following year.
STRANGE LIGHTS APPEAR IN ALASKA'S NIGHT SKY DURING 'AWESOME' AURORA EXPERIMENT
View over the city and Tromso Bay from Fjellheisen cable car station during polar night sunset at Storsteinen, Tromsdalen in Norway on January 14th, 2025.
(Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto / Getty Images)
Other places in the world that experience midnight sun and polar night include: Norway, portions of Northern Canada, Iceland, Sweden and Greenland.