Imagine for a moment that you live in a place where the sun never rises above the horizon.  No sunlight for days…65 days to be exact.  In addition to no sunlight, the mercury in neighborhood thermometers fails to rise above 0°F from January though February.  This cold, dark place does exist.  Anyone want to take a trip to Barrow, Alaska?  Barrow is the northern most city in the United States and is known for being one of the coldest places on Earth.  The coldest temperature ever recorded in Barrow was -56°F on February 2, 1924.  Brr!  Those that call Barrow, Alaska home are one hearty bunch!

Barrow, Alaska.  Jessica K Robertson (vog.sgsu@nostreborj), U.S. Geological Survey

Anyways, today happens to be a big day in Barrow because it’s the last sunrise and sunset.  The sun rose at 12:48 PM and set at 1:36 PM.  The sun hung low in the horizon for a whopping 12 minutes!  As the winter solstice draws near (December 21) the sun will begin to appear at it’s farthest point south of the Earth’s equator.  The Arctic Circle, including Barrow, tilts away from the sun so far that the sunrise/sunset occur below the horizon.  This is due to the Earth’s 23° tilt on it’s axis and yearly orbit around the sun.

The sun will eventually re-appear January 23.  But during those 65 days of no sunlight, the atmosphere will cool considerably.  One would probably expect the coldest month to be January.  However, because there is a lag in time between the cooling of the ground and the air that is in contact with the ground, the coldest month is February.  The January average temperature in Barrow is -13.7°F and in February it is -16°F.  Pretty cool (or should I say cold?) stuff.

Kristin Clark

WeatherNation Meteorologist