Timelapse Shows Last Sunset Before 'Polar Night' Brings 66 Days of Darkness to Utqiagvik, Alaska
The onset of the “polar night” plunged Utqiagvik, Alaska, into 66 days of darkness on November 18.
Timelapse footage taken by the University of Alaska Fairbanks Sea Ice Group’s 24-hour webcam shows the last sunset for the next two months.
The Washington Post reported the “polar night” is a “phenomenon at high latitudes that visits the Arctic and Antarctic circles each winter.”
“Because of Earth’s tilt on its axis,” wrote the Washington Post, “regions in the Arctic Circle can remain facing away from the sun for days, weeks or even months at a time between the fall and spring equinoxes.”
The next sunrise in Utqiagvik won’t arrive until January 23. Credit: University of Alaska Fairbanks Sea Ice Group via Storyful
