Personal blog about states
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 Anchorage, all days between June 8 and July 5 have 24 hours of daylight or civil twilight.
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.
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.
When you hear folks say that Alaska is all light half the year and all dark the other half of the year , what you’re hearing is an exaggeration of a basic astronomical fact: in winter, the sun is in the lower hemisphere and it does not light the north pole.
June 21
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.
Does your home area have midnight sun ? In Barrow, the state’s northernmost community, the sun does not set for more than two and a half months—from May 10 until August 2. 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.
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 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.
Located over 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle, Tromsø, Norway , is home to extreme light variation between seasons. During the Polar Night, which lasts from November to January, the sun doesn’t rise at all. Then the days get progressively longer until the Midnight Sun period, from May to July, when it never sets.
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.
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.
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.
Alaska runs a program called the Alaska Permanent Fund, which, per the state website, allots an equal amount of the state’s oil royalties to every resident through an annual dividend. In 2018, that dividend came out to $1,600 per person.
To become a resident , you need to be physically present in the state, and you must have the intention to stay in Alaska for an indefinite period. Physical presence alone is not a sufficient condition for obtaining residency .