Personal blog about states
That said, Alaska still gets fairly extreme. For example, Barrow—one of the northernmost towns in Alaska—has about two months of darkness in the winter, from about November 18 to January 22. But in the summer, the sun doesn’t completely set for about 82 days, from roughly May 11 until July 31.
What life is really like in an Alaskan town that won’t see the sun again until January 23. Utqiaġvik, Alaska , the northernmost town in the US, experiences darkness from November to January every year. The phenomenon is called a polar night . The sun won’t rise in Utqiaġvik again until January 23.
That depends on where in Alaska you live. The farther north you go, the longer the day. Just north of Fairbanks, the day is 24 hours long. In Fairbanks, there are nearly 22 hours of daylight, about 19.5 hours in Anchorage and 18.2 hours in Juneau.
In Alaska , the sun travels in a slanting 360 degree circle in the sky, so even if it’s below the horizon, it’s barely below it for a long period. This means that even though the sun isn’t visible, we still receive very bright twilight that can last for hours or until the sun rises again.
Where Are The Most Dangerous Cities In Alaska?
Rank | City | Violent Crimes Per Capita |
---|---|---|
1 | Kotzebue | 3,238 |
2 | Kenai | 786 |
3 | Anchorage | 1,309 |
4 | Juneau | 827 |
Alaska does not limit or tax alcoholic beverages brought into this state for personal use and not for resale. Over 75 Alaska communities have, by local option, banned the importation or possession of alcoholic beverages. It may be a felony crime to ship alcoholic beverages to those communities.
1. Alaska Gets Six Months of 24-Hour Sunlight and Darkness . Barrow is one of Alaska’s northernmost cities and gets complete darkness for two months out of the year. During the summer, the sun doesn’t completely set in Barrow from early May until the end of July.
Barrow— Alaska’s northernmost village—lies far above the Arctic Circle. This is why it’s constantly exposed to the sun during some parts of the year, preventing it from experiencing night for more than two months.
Even though residents of Barrow, the northernmost town in Alaska , won’t see the sun for 67 days come winter, they enjoy the midnight sun all summer – over 80 days of uninterrupted daylight.
June 21
Alaska is cold , very cold . Alaska has the coldest winters, the coldest summers, the longest winter, the most freezing degree days, and on and on. Temperatures in the -30°s and -40°s are a near daily occurrence from November through March in the interior portion of the state. There is a very simple reason for this.
What is going on? Over the course of an entire year, locations in the Lower 48 receive far more solar energy ( solar radiation) than their counterparts in Alaska . This is simply a function of the angle of solar rays striking the Earth. At high latitudes, solar radiation is spread across a much larger area.
For example, in Fairbanks, the sunrise on this year’s summer solstice (June 20) is at 2:59 a.m. Sunset is at 12:47 a.m. the next day . For those two hours between sunrise and sunset, it’s basically dusk or dawn because it never actually gets dark. This all – day daylight occurs from May 17 through July 27 in Fairbanks.
LOS ANGELES – Within the Arctic Circle lies a phenomenon, where months go by when the sun doesn’t rise above the horizon for more than 24 hours. This is called the polar night, and residents of America’s northernmost town, Utqiaġvik, Alaska – formerly known as Barrow — will watch this happen Wednesday.
You can’t go wrong visiting Alaska anytime between May 10 and September 15. The days are long, nature is in full bloom, and the air is alive with energy. But, for the absolute best time to visit Alaska , shoot for June 15 to July 15.