ummer - Land of the Midnight Sun

Summers are very pleasant in Fairbanks. Temperatures are moderate, ranging in the 40 to 50 degree Fahrenheit range at night to the 60 to 80 degree range during the day. Occasionally it will get above 80. Sometimes it gets up into the 90's. We get some rain and often thunder and lightning storms, with hail as big as marbles! Mostly it is very pleasant and time to enjoy the outdoors. Fairbanks is located about 212 miles south of the Arctic Circle at about 65 degrees North latitude. The Arctic Circle is the latitude at which the sun does not set for one day at summer solstice and does not rise for one day at winter solstice. Above the Arctic Circle, at Barrow (the northernmost community in the United States), the sun does not set from May 10 to August 2 - 84 days. For the period November 18 to January 24 - 67 days - there is no daylight in Barrow. The latitude of the Arctic Circle, which varies slightly from year to year, is approximately 66 degrees 34 minutes north from the equator and circumscribes the northern frigid zone.

(photo � 1997 Barbara Logan)
The Northern sky at midnight on Summer Solstice 1997, Fairbanks, Alaska.

In the summer Fairbanks has long daylight hours. This is the reason that Alaska and other Northern regions are called "the land of the Midnight Sun." June 21, the Summer Solstice, is our longest daylight day of the year. We get 21 hours and 49 minutes of sunlight that day. Then slowly, about 7 to 10 minutes of daylight is lost each day until on September 22 we are at the Autumnal Equinox and the daylight is about 12 hours. This daylight loss continues until December 21, Winter Solstice, when we have 3 hours and 42 minutes of sunlight. Then the cycle reverses, and we start gaining back the lost minutes of light. On March 21 we are at 12 hours again, the Vernal (or Spring) Equinox. The days again lengthen to the 21 hours and 49 minutes of the Summer Solstice on June 21, and we have come full circle for the year. The weather is of course affected by this change in daylight. The summer is usually the months of June, July and August. Those three months will generally be above freezing temperatures every day and night. By the last week of August we start getting a little frost. But we have had frost as early as August 6!

(photo � 1996 Barbara Logan)
Fireweed along the Chena River

See pictures of Summer 2001 at Our House

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This page was last updated 25 January 2004 � Barbara Logan
URL is http://freepages.family.rootsweb.com/~soakbear/summer.htm