5 places on Earth where the sun doesn’t set for months

In most parts of the world, sunrise and sunset help set the daily routine– when people wake up, work, relax, and sleep. But in some rare places on Earth, this pattern changes for part of the year. In these regions, the sun stays in the sky for days or even months without setting. This natural phenomenon is called the Midnight Sun.People living in these regions are used to adapting to weeks of nonstop daylight– and later, weeks of darkness. For travellers, it can be both amazing and confusing. Here are five places around the world where night doesn’t show up for a while.

In Norway, especially in areas above the Arctic Circle, the sun doesn’t set at all during parts of the summer. From mid-May to the end of July, northern towns like Tromsø get sunlight 24 hours a day. In Svalbard, one of the northernmost places in Europe where people live, the sun stays up from April 10 to August 23.

Even though only a small part of Iceland is inside the Arctic Circle, the country still gets very long days in summer. In June, places like Akureyri and Grimsey Island stay bright even at midnight. The sun may go slightly below the horizon, but it never gets fully dark. For weeks, the nights look more like late evenings.

Nunavut, in northern Canada, sits just above the Arctic Circle. In summer, some areas here get almost 24 hours of sunlight for nearly two months. In contrast, winter brings several weeks of complete darkness. With a small population spread across a large region, people living here adjust their daily lives around these extreme changes in daylight.

Barrow, now called Utqiaġvik, is the northernmost town in Alaska. From late May to the end of July, the sun stays up all day, with around 70 days of continuous daylight. Then, starting in November, the town enters a polar night, where the sun doesn’t rise for about 30 days. This dramatic shift between nonstop sunlight and complete darkness makes Utqiaġvik one of the most extreme places to experience this natural event.

Northern Sweden also experiences long hours of daylight during the summer. From early May to late August, areas within the Arctic region see the sun set around midnight and rise again just a few hours later. In some northern spots, the sun stays up continuously for weeks.