Here comes the sun

The sun stays under the horizon north of the Arctic Circle midwinter. The further north in the Barents Region you go, the longer the polar night season last. In Murmansk, the sun came back last week, in Rovaniemi the week before that.

Today, the sun hardly made it over the horizon outside Kirkenes at 69°49’N. Although the magnificent frozen winter landscape bathed in sunshine for some few minutes; the sun couldn’t do anything with the temperature, for the third week in a row below -30°C.

Further north, at North Cape, the sun will be back this weekend.

An old legend, still practiced by locals here at the top of Europe, says you will be granted three wishes when seeing the first sun after the polar night period. 

Still dressed in warm clothes locals can now start countdown towards spring and the Midnight sun period. From late May the sun will be visible for the full 24-hours for a two month period at the top of Europe.