More about Alaska
Daylight and darkness
Most of state sees the sun every day, even in winter
Alaska.com
A common notion about Alaska is that the whole state goes dark in the winter and has unending sunlight in the summer. That's not quite the case, as shown by the statewide sunrise/sunset times listed below.
Barrow, at the very top of the state, has a two-month winter period in which the sun doesn't rise. But that's the extreme, and winter's long nights get shorter the farther south one goes. South of the Arctic Circle, every place has sunshine at least part of the day.
In the summer, all of Arctic Alaska gets 24-hour sunlight for at least one day at the solstice. Barrow has continuous daylight for 85 days. South of the circle, every town has a night every day, even if it's quite brief.
Long dawns and dusks can make the day appear longer than it actually is. Even as far south as Anchorage, it's possible to read a newspaper outdoors at 2 a.m. -- two hours after sunset -- in the days around the summer solstice.
The Arctic Circle, at 66 degrees 34 minutes north latitude, crosses Alaska about 125 miles north of Fairbanks. The circle is the point at which the sun doesn't rise for a day in the winter and doesn't set for a day in the summer.
Winter solstice in 2002 occurs Dec. 21 at 4:15 p.m. Alaska Standard Time. In the summer of 2003, solstice occurs June 21 at 11:10 a.m. Alaska Daylight Time.
Anchorage
(Southcentral Alaska.) Latitude 61.17 north, longitude 150.02 west. Also near this latitude: Bethel, Eagle River, Girdwood, Glennallen, Palmer, Wasilla, Valdez, Lake Clark National Park, Wrangell St-Elias National Park; Whitehorse, Yukon Territory; Oslo, Norway; Stockholm, Sweden; St. Petersburg, Russia.
| Solstice | Sunrise | Sunset | Hours of daylight |
| June | 4:21 a.m. | 11:42 p.m. | 19:21 |
| December | 10:14 a.m. | 3:42 p.m. | 5:28 |
Barrow
(Extreme northern Alaska.) Latitude 71.30 north, longitude 156.78 west. Also near this latitude: Hammerfest, Norway; Murmansk and Wrangel Island, Russia.
| Solstice | Sunrise | Sunset | Hours of daylight |
| June | Up | Up | 24 |
| December | Down | Down | 0 |
Note: Sun is up 85 days from May 10 to Aug. 2. The sun is down 67 days from Nov. 18 to Jan. 23.
Bethel
(Western Alaska.) Latitude 60.78 north, longitude 161.80 west. Also near this latitude: Anchorage, Nunivak Island, Pribilof Islands, Wood-Tikchik State Park.
| Solstice | Sunrise | Sunset | Hours of daylight |
| June | 5:13 a.m. | 12:24 a.m. | 19:09 |
| December | 10:58 a.m. | 4:34 p.m. | 5:36 |
Cold Bay
(Western Alaska Peninsula.) Latitude 55.20 north, longitude 162.73 west. Also near this latitude: Unalaska/Dutch Harbor, Ketchikan.
| Solstice | Sunrise | Sunset | Hours of daylight |
| June | 5:10 a.m. | 10:35 p.m. | 17:25 |
| December | 9:16 a.m. | 4:23 p.m. | 7:07 |
Fairbanks
(Interior Alaska.) Latitude 64.82 north, longitude 147.87 west. Also near this latitude: Eagle, Galena, Nome; Reykjavik, Iceland; Arkhangelsk, Russia.
| Solstice | Sunrise | Sunset | Hours of daylight |
| June | 2:59 a.m. | 12:48 a.m. | 21:49 |
| December | 10:59 a.m. | 2:41 p.m. | 3:42 p.m. |
Juneau
(Northern Panhandle of Southeastern Alaska.) Latitude 58.37 north, longitude 134.58 west. Also near this latitude: Glacier Bay National Park, Kodiak; London, Berlin, Moscow.
| Solstice | Sunrise | Sunset | Hours of daylight |
| June | 3:51 a.m. | 10:09 p.m. | 18:18 |
| December | 8:46 a.m. | 3:07 p.m. | 6:21 |
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