24 hours of light: The midnight sun is rising over Canada's north
By the end of this month, everyone north of the Arctic Circle will be immersed in 24-hour daylight for weeks.
Northern communities are beginning to see the sun rise in the morning and not set again until later this summer.
The midnight sun, also called a Polar Day, is when regions north of the Arctic Circle see 24 hours of continuous sunlight for weeks, if not months, on end around the summer solstice. This phenomenon is due to Earth's axis being tilted toward the sun, causing the sun to hover above the horizon rather than set in the Far North.
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Similarly, around the winter solstice, these same communities are immersed in perpetual night, as the Earth's axis is tilted away from the sun during the winter season.
On Sunday morning, the sun rose above the horizon in Utqiagvik, Alaska, the northernmost city in the United States, and won't set again until Aug. 2. In Canada, the midnight sun already rose in Resolute, Nunavut, on April 29 and will stay in the sky until Aug. 29--a total of 108 days!
There are many other Northern Canada communities within the Arctic Circle that will soon get to experience another season with the midnight sun by the end of the month, including:
Tuktoyaktuk: May 19 - July 25 (67 days)
Igloolik: May 20 - July 25 (66 days)
Inuvik: May 25 - July 19 (55 days)
Kugluktuk: May 28 - July 16 (49 days)