What is Polar Night and when does it start?

The sun set on Monday, November 18, in towns and cities within 23.5º of the North Pole for the last time until 2025. This phenomenon, known as Polar Night, plunges the top of the globe into a nearly perpetual night until January 22, 2025.

While it's romantic to envision cozy light-filled homes buried in snow under sparkling stars for months on end, this isn’t a completely accurate image. This region in the Arctic Circle experiences something called “civil twilight,” in which the sky will turn varying shades of azure and light purple, allowing people to see more normally for a few hours every day. North America’s northernmost town, Utqiaġvik, Alaska (formerly known as Barrow), experiences civil twilight for roughly 3 hours on the winter solstice and up to 6 hours closer to the first and last day of Polar Night. 

But places like Longyearbyen on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, which are even farther north, the civil twilight is much shorter. Not too long ago, Lonely Planet’s Social Media Director, Deepa Lakshmin interviewed Longyearbyen local, Celia Blomdahl about what life was like so far north. 

“You’ll see a super cozy city, people drinking coffee all day long and chilling,” Celia told Deepa. She said if you love nighttime, you should go, but be warned – you won’t see much else. 

Polar Night is a wonderful time to travel to these northern destinations if you want to experience the most intense Northern Lights, particularly this year. Scientists are saying that the level of solar activity is currently the highest it’s been in about 20 years. 

But you don’t have to go all the way to the Arctic Circle to experience a mostly dark day and incredible Northern Lights. Slightly lower in latitude and reachable via the Aurora Winter Train, Fairbanks, Alaska, is situated just close enough to the Arctic Circle that you’ll get to enjoy the hygge of a mostly dark day and a strong chance of seeing the Northern Lights.