Midnight sun, Svalbard, Norway

© Nature Picture Library/Alam

Midnight sun

From this time of year until late August, the sun doesn’t set in Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. As Svalbard is north of the Arctic Circle, it experiences midnight sun in summer and polar night in winter.

Norway is one of eight countries in the Northern Hemisphere that experience the phenomenon known as the midnight sun. Parts of the United States (Alaska), Canada, Iceland, Finland, Sweden, Russia and the Kingdom of Denmark (Greenland) also see the sun at local midnight during the summer months. In these northernmost climates the path of the sun is often cause for celebration. Svalbard celebrates Sun Festival Week when the sun first emerges in early March.