UTQIAGVIK, Ak. – The opening line to Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘Sound of Silence’ comes to mind as I write this article.
Utgiagvik, Alaska (formerly known as Barrow) will see 50 minutes of daylight Thursday. Once the sun sets at 1:37 p.m. AKST, it won’t rise again until January 22, 2022.
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You can watch that unfold on the live camera from the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute.
This is just one indication of the changing seasons.
Because the earth is tilted approximately 23.5° in relation to the sun, our amount of daylight changes. Right now the sun’s direct rays continue to shift farther south, meaning that the far-northern latitudes lose daylight at a faster clip compared to us.
Utqiagvik’s lack of daylight suddenly makes you feel better about our current 10 hours of daylight!
The rapid loss of daylight far north does play a role here. The loss of daylight, decrease in temperatures and increase in snow up north battle with the warmer air south of us for control of our weather this time of year.
This leads to rapid and frequent changes in temperature whenever the jet stream dips and retreats.
It just so happens that we’re in the midst of a temperature roller coaster right now. For more on our forecast moving forward, check back here.