Arctic Stories #3. Polar day and Polar night

If you've heard in fairy tales that there was a polar day and a polar night, these were true. In the Arctic, it's light for half a year. And dark for half a year too. Now, when I say this, I don't mean it literally. Of course, there is a day and a night in each day of the year. But their proportion varies greatly.

Let's start from the night. With that I'll take you to my childhood again. Remember I wrote, how my dad was rubbing my cheeks in winter and carrying me to school in the cold? These was all in the dark. We went to school in the dark in the morning. And came back home in the dark in the afternoon. It wasn't even that late. My school finished at 2pm. But there were only 2 to 4 hours of light in winter. And we spent them inside studying.

If you just thought to yourself: "Wow, that must be depressing." It can. However, when there is snow, it reflects light from the street lamps. And things start looking on the bright side :). Plus, whoever invented vitamin D, you rule! I only discovered it in Belgium, but it's definitely worth taking in the North. :)

My mom told me that in the last couple of years, there were really dark days in winter without any snow on the streets. It melted due to high temperatures and climate change. And those days weren't so easy.

The shortest day of the year is December 21st. That's when there is barely any light at all. But from this date every day is a few minutes longer. And then all the Northerners are looking forward to the brighter days.

Once we gradually start approaching summer, days get longer and longer. By June they get so long, that you won't even have couple of hours of complete darkness at night. I remember the sun rising at 4 am in the morning, while it never got dark in the first place.

When we visited my birth city with my husband for the first time about 7 years ago, he couldn't sleep. There was so much light at night, that even window blinds didn't help. He couldn't get used to it! I slept like a baby, by the way :). And surprisingly, he still says he prefers polar nights to polar days.

This is as dark as it gets in summer. And if you go further up North, it's even lighter than that.

Polar day is the time of celebration. The river that I showed you in my first edition of this newsletter has a very long promenade. And this promenade barely sees any people in winter, except for the locals and skiers. Yet in summer it comes alive! Everyone is out. Everyone is walking, cycling, roller-skating. There is a bunch of cafes popping up. Music is on. Life is in full swing!

I lived right next to the river with my parents. And we heard the music until late at night. It was joyful and wonderful. I also took long bicycle rides along the river. And did roller-skating tricks with my best friend.

The longest day of the year is June 21st. Now, my parents told me stories, that sometimes it even snowed in June! Whaaat? I am 33 years old, and I haven't seen it. So our climate is changing after all.

We also have a beach at the river. When summer is there, people come to sunbath, ride little boats on the river and play beach sports. This river used to be clean for swimming. My mom said that before I was born, summers were hot. They would come out to the river with my dad in the evening and swim. Swimming is no longer recommended there, because the city sewage enters it, and the river is full of dangerous bacteria. What are we doing to nature?

If you'd ask me about climate change impacting summers in the North, I would be inclined to say, they get warmer and warmer. But, according to my mom, winters used to be really cold and summers used to be really hot. After I was born, I only remember fairly cold summers. With a few days of +25C here and there. But with usual temperatures between 10 and 20C. Last years it started getting hot again. I'll write about that in my next edition, where we'll talk about growing food in the Arctic and risky agriculture.

Until then, please, restore our planet in any way you can :).