Updated: May 17, 2017 Published: May 17, 2017
:quality(70)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-wordpress-client-uploads/adn/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/16090806/Summer-solstice-sunset-Fairbanks.jpg "It's summertime: Fairbanks says hello to 72 straight days of light (1)")
Fairbanks has reached a major summer milepost:it won't be truly dark againformore than two months.
The Interior Alaska city has entered its annualstring of 72 days where the sun just barely dips below the horizon at night, leaving a lingering glowknown as civil twilight.
Civil twilight means the sun travels no morethan 6 degrees below the horizon, said Brian Brettschneider, a climate researcher at the University of Alaska Fairbanks International Arctic Research Center.
"It's usable twilight," Brettschneider said, meaning people can take part in outdoor activitieswithout needing additional light.
Civil twilight began Tuesday at1:53 a.m., according to the U.S. Naval Observatory. The city won't see civil twilight end again until July 27 at 1:40 a.m.
Fairbanks, AK, doesn't technically receive midnight sun, but starting today, they have 24 hours of daylight plus civil twilight. @AlaskaWx pic.twitter.com/7WDI5tICIc
— Brian Brettschneider (@Climatologist49) May 16, 2017
Sitting about 100 miles south of the Arctic Circle, Fairbanks doesn't technically get 24 hours of sunlight, Brettschneider said, but civil twilight can make it feel like it does.
On June 21, the longest day of summer, the sun sets in Fairbanks at 12:47 a.m., and rises at 2:59 a.m.
