The Midnight Sun

It's one thing to know a fact. Sometimes, it's quite different to experience it.

Matt has just returned from Canada. He told a story about the first morning up there. He woke up to bright sunshine from outside. Looking over, he saw his friend Clifford sitting up on his sleeping bag with a confused look on his face. Clifford was staring at his watch. When Matt asked what was wrong, Clifford said something must be wrong with his watch, since it was indicating barely 5:00am, and it was light outside. As Matt and Clifford talked about it, one of the other guys on the trip (who had been up there on past trips) piped up and said, "Hey, guys! You're in Canada! It gets light early up here. Go back to sleep!"

I remember Vicki (a friend who lives in Anchorage) talking about playing ball games well into the late hours during the summer, since the sun doesn't go down until late. It makes sense, and I know how it happens, but it's still a jolt to really LOOK at the numbers. So, here are some sunrise/sunset times from yesterday, June 21:

Anchorage: Sunrise - 4:22am. Sunset - 11:43pm. That means that (if it's fairly clear) it won't get dark until well after midnight! But hold on, it gets more interesting ...

Fairbanks: Sunrise - 2:59am. Sunset - 12:48am. That's having the sun above the horizon for 21 hours and 49 minutes every day!

The real shocker was looking up the numbers for Barrow: Sunrise: None. Sunset: None. Daylight: 24 hours, 00 minutes. And, tacked onto the bottom of the climate report in a most matter-of-fact manner was this little note: "The next sunset is August 3rd."

(Just for the record, all times are from the National Weather Service's daily climate reports.)