Utqiagvik: Life in the Midnight Sun and the Polar Night

Imagine you lived in a place where the sun doesn’t set for two and a half months, what would you do with all the daylight? Would you spend time soaking in the sun? Go fishing? Now imagine living in a place where the sun doesn’t rise for two and a half months. Would you go insane from the darkness? What could you do outdoors with no daylight? Did you know that the further North and South one gets, the more drastic their summer and winter daylight hours are? If you lived on the equator, you would see almost exactly 12 hours of daylight everyday, year round.  Utqiagvik is the most northern town in Alaska, and even in all of North America. Utqiagvik isn’t the northernmost town in the world, that title is reserved for Svalbard’s Longyearbyen. However, Utquiagvik is only 1300 miles away from the North Pole. If there was a road, you could drive to the North Pole in under a day. Utqiagvik faces this climate every year. In the summer, the sun is above the horizon for two and a half months, it never sets, this phenomenon is called the Midnight Sun.

 In the winter, the sun is below the horizon for two and a half months, and this period of darkness is called the Polar Night. Life in this drastically changing climate is very extreme, and the majority of the inhabitants of Utqiagvik are Indigenous to Alaska. Some inhabitants are scientists, and some are just people who moved there to live a quiet life. Over the course of the year, the temperature typically varies from -19°F to 47°F and is rarely below -36°F or above 60°F. Life looks differently for all the people who live there, but most people work normal jobs. There’s restaurants, coffee shops, even a subway. In the Summers, tourists visit the town to learn about the history of Utqiagvik and the Iñupiat people, and to experience what life is like when the sun never sets. They take boat trips to look at the wildlife, such as Narwhals, birds, and other marine species. One of the defining features of the town is their large Whale Bone Arch, and many take pictures in front of it almost like it's the Chicago bean. In the winter, the population drastically drops. For brave adventurers, tourists can still travel to Utqiagvik to see the aurora borealis(northern lights). Because of the dark winters, they have some of the most beautiful light shows in the sky, and some people travel to get a glimpse at the beautiful aurora borealis.

To see the lights, they must be willing to brave the dark and cold weather. Certain towns in the interior of Alaska get much colder. In Fairbanks, temperatures drop to -40°F for at least 8 days in the winter, but Fairbanks never sees 24 hours of darkness, which makes Utqiagvik stand out. Life in the Midnight Sun and the Polar Night is much different than life many people are used too, but to some it's a way of life. If you’re brave, visit Utqiagvik in the winter to glimpse the aurora borealis, or visit in the summer to see the sun never set!