Alert, Canada, located just 817 kilometers from the North Pole, endures Earth’s longest polar night. As the northernmost permanently inhabited place, this military and research base in Nunavut faces extreme conditions, including 136 days without a single sunrise. The last sunlight graced the horizon on October 13th, and residents won’t see it again until February 27th, plunging the base into perpetual artificial light. This prolonged darkness significantly disrupts natural body rhythms and coincides with frigid temperatures, often plummeting below -40°C. The extreme isolation further compounds the challenges for those stationed in this remote Arctic outpost.
Beyond Alert, numerous other Arctic and Antarctic locations grapple with extended periods of darkness. Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Norway, experience around 111 days without sun, from late October to mid-February. Tromsø, Norway, faces 49 days of polar night from late November to mid-January. Utqiaġvik, Alaska, its northernmost town, endures 65 days of darkness from mid-November to late January. Murmansk, Russia, experiences about 40 days of winter darkness. Ilulissat, Greenland, is wrapped in deep twilight from late October for weeks. At the South Pole Station in Antarctica, the sun vanishes completely for nearly six months, from March to September. These phenomena are caused by Earth’s axial tilt, which causes the poles to lean away from the sun during their respective winter months.