Two Months of Darkness: An Alaskan City Where the Sun Won’t Rise Until January.

Utqiaġvik, Alaska.

The northernmost city in the United States slipped into its annual winter darkness on Tuesday, November 18, when the sun set for the final time this year. Utqiaġvik—formerly Barrow until 2016—has now entered a 66-day stretch without a single sunrise, with the next expected on January 22, 2026.

Located at 71°17′N, far above the Arctic Circle, Utqiaġvik experiences one of the most extreme polar nights in the United States.

During this period, residents will initially see only a faint civil twilight around midday, fading entirely by early December into 24-hour darkness.

Yet life in the town continues: children go to school, stores remain open, and local programs such as light-therapy, vitamin D supplementation, and community gatherings help people cope.

Polar night is not unique to Alaska. Around the world, several Arctic and sub-Arctic communities endure months without direct sunlight. For example, Longyearbyen, on the Svalbard archipelago in Norway, experiences a true polar night from late October through mid-February. At this latitude, twilight phases may linger, but for weeks the sun remains below the horizon. In even more extreme locations, some very high latitudes can go without any refracted light for extended periods, though these are among the most remote and sparsely inhabited parts of the world.

By contrast, other Arctic regions shine in summer under the Midnight Sun, when the sun doesn’t set at all.

In mainland Norway, places like Tromsø experience continuous daylight from late May to mid‑July. Further north, at the North Cape, the midnight sun stretches even longer, and in Svalbard, it lasts for nearly four months.

These dramatic seasonal shifts highlight how Earth’s tilt—not distance from the sun—largely determines whether a place basks in constant light or plunges into long darkness.

For Utqiaġvik’s Iñupiat community, the polar night is woven into centuries of culture and adaptation. While the darkness can be psychologically taxing, traditions and modern coping strategies have evolved.

As the town braces for another 66 nights, residents look forward not just to the return of rays in January, but to the resilience and unity that come with living in one of the planet’s most extreme places.