Countries where the sun never sets

I imagine many people find fascinating places on our planet where the sun almost never sets, where there are white nights and polar days. In this post we'll tell you about a few countries and places on earth where the sun stands on the horizon for days on end and doesn't set for months at a stretch.

Once a year, around the North and South Poles of the Earth, there is a period when the dark time of day becomes so long that the sun scarcely appears on the horizon. Here, the polar night lasts only a couple of hours. This is followed by the polar day – a period when the Sun does not set for more than 24 hours. Both phenomenon are related to the tilt of the equatorial plane* to the ecliptic plane**.

The Kola Peninsula in Russia

Actually, Russia has a true polar night, contrary to popular belief about places north of St. Petersburg being north of the Polar Circle. The natural phenomenon of a polar night is witnessed each year by the residents of the Kola Peninsula—Apatity, Kirovsk, Kandalaksha, Kola, Monchegorsk, Olenegorsk, Zapolyarny, Severomorsk, Polyarny, Murmansk, Bilimbino, Verkhoyansk, Vorkuta, Gadzhiyevo, Dudinka, Yuzhno-Kolymsk, Igarka, Naryan-Mar, Norilsk, Ostrovnoy, Pevek, Snezhnogorsk, and Srednekolymsk. You can't find such an extreme natural phenomenon in other Russian cities.

Sommarøy Island in Norway

Sommarøy island in Norway is one of the places where during the polar day the sun does not set for 69 consecutive days, from May 18th to July 26th. The sun stands on the horizon for more than 20 hours a day. Sommarøy in translation means 'Summer Island'.

From November to January, the sun does not rise above the horizon at all, which is also a feature of the island – the Polar Night begins. Many inhabitants of the island and tourists often forget about time, that is why there are a lot of clocks in Sommaröy, and the bridge leading to the island became a popular attraction of Sommaröy due to the wristwatches hanging on it. The inhabitants of Sommaröy even wrote a petition to the government asking to cancel time, as a concept, during the Polar Day.

Kiruna City in Sweden

About 20,000 people live in Kiruna, the northernmost city of Sweden. In these latitudes, the sun can not set for more than 100 days, beginning in May and ending in August. It is during this period that tourists strive to visit northern Kiruna to catch days of endless sun.

The Polar Day is not the only reason to visit Kiruna. One of the main local attractions is a modern-style church, whose architectural forms are unique and the gilded statues on the roof are very unusual and attract a lot of interested tourists.

Yukon in Canada

The Yukon Territory with its capital Whitehorse is located north of the Arctic Circle, in the northwest of Canada. Most of the year is covered by snow and when summer comes there are 50 days in a row of sun! The incredible aurora lights and the bright sun create an untouched environment with fantastic wild colors and various species of migratory birds.

Iceland

The period of midnight sun and white nights in Iceland falls during the summer, mainly from the middle of May to the end of August, during which time the sun sets slightly below the horizon. From May to July the sun shines much longer than in August, so if you want to experience sunny days, it is best to come to Iceland in May or June. Iceland is also one of the few places where white nights can be seen in any part of the island.

*Equator - an imaginary plane that divides the Earth's sphere into Northern and Southern hemispheres.

**Ecliptic - the trajectory along which the visible annual motion of the Sun takes place.