Personal blog about states
Fairbanks’ Aurora Season is from August 21 to April 21 and the aurora will be visible in Fairbanks an average of four out of five nights when the sky is clear and dark enough. Scientifically speaking, the aurora is dancing above year-round, but we can only see it during the Aurora Season when we have dark enough skies.
Best Time to See the Northern Lights in Alaska Alaska’s northern lights season is between mid – September and late April , peaking in March , though it’s a season defined more by its long, dark nights than by solar activity.
Most tour companies will pick up guests from any Fairbanks hotel or accommodation as part of the package price. Evening tours run from 9 p.m. to about 4 a.m. and average $75 to $85 per person, while more extensive tours like the Northern Alaska fly/drive Arctic Circle viewing tour begins at $269 per person.
Fairbanks
When is the best month to visit Alaska? 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.
There is no official season since the Northern Lights are almost always present, day and night . Caused by charged particles from the sun hitting atoms in Earth’s atmosphere and releasing photons, it’s a process that happens constantly.
Coldfoot, a town in Alaska’s Brooks Range mountains, offers the best chance of witnessing the Alaska Northern Lights . With a slightly longer season than Iceland , stretching from mid-September through late April, Alaska is a great no-passport-required option for U.S. residents.
The northern lights occur all four seasons of the year, although they are harder to see under the Midnight Sun. The best time to see the lights is between August and April, when less daylight leads to darker night skies.
Due to Alaska’s northerly latitude, the requisite darkness is elusive in summer, when daylight lasts as long as 21 hours a day. The May to September cruise season coincides exactly with the least likely time of year to see the northern lights , which are generally visible from late September through April.
During the winter of 2020 , the Northern Lights viewing was typical for a solar minimum year . But from 2020 onwards, there will be a slow ramp-up in solar activity, and auroras should increase in frequency, peaking in 2024/2025 with the Solar Maximum. Read more about where to see the Northern lights here.
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.
Is it expensive to live in Alaska ? Yes, overall Alaska is one of the more expensive states to live in in the entire United States of America. Due to our location, and the necessity of shipping or flying everything in, our costs of goods and services is much higher than the average state.
What are the best places to see the Northern Lights ? Tromso, Norway. Based in the heart of the aurora zone in the Norwegian Arctic, the city is widely regarded as one of the world’s best places to see the Northern Lights . Swedish Lapland. Reykjavik, Iceland. Yukon, Canada. Rovaniemi, Finnish Lapland. Ilulissat, Greenland.
But here’s the good news: The time is right to get a glimpse of the aurora borealis . Thanks to longer hours of darkness and clear night skies, December through March is usually the best time to observe this elusive natural phenomenon (though you can sometimes see the northern lights starting as early as August ).
The Northern Lights occur so high up in the atmosphere that they don’t pose any threat to people watching them from the ground. The aurora itself is not harmful to humans but the electrically charged particles produced could have some potentially negative effects to infrastructure and technology.