Fairbanks is dark in the winter. The official length of the day on the winter solstice is 3 hours, 41 minutes, and some change. Luckily, we benefit from having a lot of twilight, long sunrises and sunsets, and the northern lights. The brilliant color certainly makes up for the lack of daylight. It never hurts to add some color of our own.
Our winter morning skies start to take on pink and blue tones about an hour before sunrise. They gradually warm, becoming red and orange. On the solstice, the sun doesn’t rise around town at the official sunrise time of 10:58 am because the Alaska Range blocks the view. Most of the day looks like (pretty much is) a sunrise/sunset for the entire time the sun is above the horizon. We were treated to a nice aurora display early in the solstice evening.
Here’s some winter solstice light from Fairbanks this year:
