Mid-Winter Darkness Falls Across Northern Finland

Photo: YLE/Maiju SaijetsIn Utsjoki, in the far north of Finnish Lapland, the long Arctic winter night began when the sun stayed below the horizon on Saturday. The sun will not be seen again at Utsjoki until January 16th.

At the same time, the day in Helsinki, some 1300 km further south, is now down to around seven hours of light.

The polar night, known in Finnish as kaamos, occurs only above the Arctic Circle in the northern hemisphere.

However, these northern areas are not necessarily in total darkness, as the atmosphere can bend the light of the sun and make it appear to rise above the horizon at times. Often, the polar night is more of a sunless twilight than a deep, dark night.

YLE

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