Lots of people think that we have 24 hours of sunlight all summer, and then sometime in September a huge switch is turned and suddenly we have 24 hours of darkness. This is one of the common myths about Alaska that I really makes me shake my head. I don't know why anyone would believe this, but they do. Even though seasonal changes happen gradually everywhere else on Earth, people still seem to think that in Alaska, the world turns differently.
Well, today the sun rose at 6:04am and it's going to go down at 9:40pm, giving us about sixteen hours of daylight, and we're losing light at a rate of seven minutes per day. The sun will rise later and later, and set earlier and earlier, until we only have about two and a half hours of sunlight by December 21st.
While I hate losing our wonderful light summer nights, I always remind myself that at least for August, September and October, we are living the kind of days everyone else is.
