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70 straight days of continuous, 24/7 sunlight starts now!
From May 17 through July 27, Fairbanks enjoys an incredible 70 consecutive days of continuous sunshine. These radiant, sunshine-filled days occur during the Midnight Sun Season (April 22- August 20), bringing warmth, hope, joy, and a whole lot of sunshine to Fairbanks and the Far North. As the season progresses, the sun’s cyclical path across the sky elevates, and eventually there is no darkness, only light. Continuous civil twilight merges sunsets and sunrises in the middle of the night, creating 70 straight days of sunlight.
Civil Twilight
Civil twilight, an aeronautical term meaning “useable daylight hours,” occurs when the sun’s center is between 0° and 6° below the horizon. During continuous civil twilight, sunlight from below the horizon is bright enough for pilots to identify objects on the ground—and for those of us on the ground, it creates the experience of perpetual sunshine.
The number of continuous, full sunshine days that an area gets is directly linked to its latitude. Fairbanks is located at a high latitude of 64.8° North. At latitudes this high, the tilt of the Earth during the summer leans the North Pole toward the sun. As a result, the sun stays above or just barely below the horizon for extended periods, allowing continuous civil twilight to persist throughout the night.
This graph represents the significant annual changes in light in Fairbanks. The different colored bands represent civil, nautical and astronomical twilight—the three types of twilight as articulated by the number of degrees the sun is below the horizon on any given day.
Credit: Rick Thoman/Climate Science and Services Manager
Track the Sun
Check out the Midnight Sun Tracker to find out how many hours of daylight there are on any given day in Fairbanks, Coldfoot and Utqiagvik, plus view multiple webcams streaming 24 hours of light.
You’re invited!
Consider yourself officially invited to Fairbanks to bask in the midnight sun! This magical time of year is jam-packed with events including the Summer Solstice and Midnight Sun Festival, Midnight Sun Baseball Game, Midnight Sun Run, and more.
A 70-day flood of sunshine fills Fairbanks with vibrant and magical energy and welcomes in a summer full of amazing things to do. In the middle of the night, you can find the sun shining brightly and people biking, gardening, and walking their dogs.
If you can’t make it this year, no worries, the sun and all its glory will return!
