Remember the song Tomorrow from the musical Annie? It goes, ” The sun will come out tomorrow. Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, There’ll be sun”. Well if you had bet your bottom dollar in the town of Utqiagvik (formally known as Barrow), Alaska, anytime over the past two months, you would be flat broke.
The sunset in Utqiagvik on November 19, 2022, has not risen above the horizon since. Thankfully for the townspeople, their endless night will soon come to an end. On January 23rd, 2023, the sun will once again crest the horizon and shine down on the town. Granted, the sun will only shine for an hour in twelve minutes on the 23rd, but the sun will shine.
Following the cresting of the sun on the 23rd the days start getting longer and fast. By February 1, just about a week after the first daylight in two months, the town will gain almost 3 hours of daylight. Compare that to, say, Los Angeles, which will gain just 14 minutes over that same time frame.
So here’s to you, good people of Utqiagvik. Enjoy your day in the sun.