High up in the lands of The Midnight Sun, on the shortest day of the year they get just a little over two hours of sunlight during the day. I’d go mad in the perpetual gloom, and I’ve heard that the Inuit have their issues with it too. Down here in Sunny Alberta, we will get around 7.5 hours on the winter solstice. Right now the sun rises at around 8:30 and sets at a little after a quarter after four.
My hearing has always been bad; I can never make out lyrics, and I always thought that the toon, Life In A Northern Town was written about life in a Canadian northern town. In my defence - the “ah-hey-ma-ma-ma-dee-do-din-nie-yah-yah-ah-hey-ma-ma-ma” lyric… to me… sounds like your typical First Nation freeloader’s folk chant. (But usually it sounds a hell of a lot worse).
Perhaps some cultural appropriation is in order because in all seriousness the otherwise neolithic tribespeople of Inuvik have no real music of their own? Short winter days are part n’ parcel of Life In A Northern Town.
I’ve spent the solstice in Barrow. It got just a little hint of light on the southern horizon for a half hour or so. The upside is, at least where I live outside of Fairbanks, is it doesn’t get dark from mid-April till mid-August.
ReplyDeleteI often do the shortest day at ft mackay and one year in Zama, maybe 4 hrs of light, always bloody cold too.
ReplyDeleteDid the longest day in NE BC within spitting distance of northern border. We ended up seeing glow on both horizons at the same time.
Exile1981
My last year in the Chair Force was at Keflavik N.A.S., Iceland. Got there in May, my first wake up after checking in, it was one. I head off to the chow haul, pass a soft ball game, the chow haul is closed! The sign on the door CLEARLY says it should be open. Back to the barracks, ask , what's up? "It's morning, not afternoon."...oooh, thanks. It was quite the experience for a So, Cal. boy. Much better duty than Kansas, where I spent 3 miserable winters.
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