Where the sun never sets right now
1 of the northern and southern cities we track are under the midnight sun at this moment, and 0 are in polar night. The list below is computed from the sun's real position, so it rewrites itself as the year turns.
How to use this
- The first lists are live: they show where the sun is not setting, or not rising, today.
- The table below shows every high-latitude city we track and which months bring each extreme.
- Open any city for its full daylight picture through the year.
Worth knowing: The dates come from the sun’s geometry alone. Mountains and local horizon can shift what you actually see by a day or two.
Under the midnight sun today
Why the sun refuses to set
Earth's axis leans about 23.4 degrees away from straight up. That tilt is the whole reason we have seasons, and at high latitudes it produces something stranger: for part of the summer the sun's daily circle never dips below the horizon at all, and for part of the winter it never climbs above it. The Arctic and Antarctic circles are drawn precisely where that first becomes true, at roughly 66.5 degrees.
Latitude decides how long it lasts. At the circle itself the midnight sun is a single day around the solstice. In Tromsø, a few degrees further north, it runs for about two months. At the pole the sun rises once in spring, circles the sky for half a year, and sets once in autumn.
Polar night is gentler than its name suggests. The sun sits below the horizon but not far below, so the sky turns a deep blue around midday, a light photographers travel a long way to shoot. Only closer to the pole does it become genuinely dark around the clock.
Everything on this page is derived from the sun's declination and each city's latitude rather than from a stored table, which is why it can tell you the state today rather than only in general. Pick any city for its full sunrise, sunset and daylight picture through the year.
FAQ
What is the midnight sun?
Above the Arctic Circle, and below the Antarctic Circle, the sun stays above the horizon for a full 24 hours around midsummer. The further you go towards the pole, the longer the period lasts: a single day at the circle itself, and about six months at the pole.
What is polar night?
The mirror image in winter, when the sun never climbs above the horizon. It is not pitch dark: around noon there is usually a long blue twilight, and the further from the pole you are, the brighter it gets.
How is this page calculated?
From the sun's declination and the observer's latitude, using the NOAA solar algorithm. When the sun's path never crosses the horizon the day has no sunrise or sunset, and that is exactly what this page detects. No dataset is involved, so the page cannot go stale.