Imagine living in a city where the sun doesn’t set for months? People living in America’s northernmost city, Utqiagvik, Alaska (formally known as Barrow, Alaska) can tell you all about it.

What You Need To Know

  • In the Arctic Circle, Utqiagvik, Alaska is the northernmost city in the United States

  • Utqiagvik's next sunset won't occur until August 2nd

  • The amount of daylight decreases after today across the Northern Hemisphere

Utqiagvik is on an 83 day stretch without a sunset, which means it sits in daylight 24 hours a day for several months. Tuesday, June 21, was the summer solstice, and it marks the halfway point for Utqiagvik’s next sunset, which will occur on August 2nd.

On the first day of summer, people around Tampa Bay have certainly noticed the hot weather. In all fairness, Tampa Bay really experiences two seasons: summer and “not summer” when you look at it from a climate perspective.

From an astronomical perspective, the day marks the point with the most direct sunlight and the most amount of daylight.

 

Early Tuesday morning, the Earth’s North Pole reached its maximum tilt toward the sun, marking the official start of astronomical summer for the Northern Hemisphere.

Everywhere north of the Arctic Circle experiences 24 hours of daylight, whereas the Antarctic Circle sits in total darkness. 

The amount of daylight decreases as you head south from the Arctic Circle. At the equator, the length of daylight decreases to just 12 hours, which is fairly constant year round. 

Tampa receives the most amount of daylight on the summer solstice, with 13 hours, 54 minutes, and 54 seconds of daylight. The sunrise is at 6:34 a.m. and the sunset is at 8:29 p.m.

After the solstice, Tampa begins losing daylight. Despite the daylight loss, our latest sunrise doesn’t occur until around June 30, with a sunset at 8:30 p.m.

How does Tampa see a later sunset after the solstice if there is less daylight?

We lose our daylight on the front end with a later sunrise. On the summer solstice, the sunrise occurs at 6:34 a.m. and on June 30, the sun rises at 6:37 a.m.

Tampa Bay only loses just a few minutes of daylight between the summer solstice and the end of the month.

If you are a fan of late sunsets, check out some of these other cities. Fairbanks, Alaska sees a sunset after midnight. Meanwhile, the northernmost cities in the lower 48 won’t see the sunset until closer to 10 p.m.