Sun Day (official)
Today – February 7. – is the official Sun Day in Narvik. That is the day, the sun is no longer obscured by the mountains and it shines down on the town square. The dark season of 2013 is over officially, although a lot of valleys and villages in the municipality has to wait for days, even weeks for the sun to get high enough in the sky to shine down on them. Time flies – and soon the midnight sun will shine in through windows from the oposite side of the Ofoten Fjord.
The official sun day is celebrated with taking half the day off and of course eating sun buns.
The sun is shining downtown today. To the left is the town hall (square building) and the newly built Rica Hotell. Further up the mountain slope Narvik University College is partly lit by the sun beaming down the mountain side.
Golden Top
The sun is shining on the mountain tops. In not very long, it will shine on the city after a long time in the darkness. First sign of spring.
First Sign of Springtime
The waneing sun
The days are rapidly getting shorter. Geographically the sun should disappear on November 22. But because of the mountains, the sun disappears a few days earlier. Geographically the sun reappears the February 6., but again because of the mountains the actual observation of the sun is a few days later.
In between these dates it is dark here. Around Christmas it is just a faint dusky light around noon, the rest of the 22 hours of the day it is dark. Pitch dark – as in the middle of the night. It is the dark season. But this time of year makes it even more cozy with lights, especially candle lights. AND it is the season of Northern Lights! During summer, the midnight sun lights up the sky day and night, thus drowning the faint light from the Northern Light. In the winter-time it is the other way around!
Even now the sun is setting early. This photo of reflections in the snow-covered mountains from sunset was taken 15:58 today.
Reflections from the sunset on snow-covered mountains today
Last shimmer of daylight in the North
In 20 days there is no sunshine and most of the day is pitch black until 13th of January. Around Christmas there is just an hour or two of twilight. The rest of the day it is totally black. In that perspective I must say the electricity producers should be ashamed of themselves. They practically give away industrial electricity to neighbor countries like Sweden and Denmark for free, while old, poor people in Norway freeze to death during the winter because they cannot pay the electricity bill. Shame on you!
Sometimes I get a feeling that the owners of the energy companies and politicians almost hate the people they are here to serve. There is a widespread nepotism in this society that will devour it unless it is stopped. To build a good society, both heart and mind must communicate with each other in the decision makers. Today it more or less seems that the only thing they are interested in is their own reelection, their own benefits and their own pension. That is no way to govern a society.
Well, we still have got the beautiful nature – for now…
Last Shimmer of Daylight in the North
***
PLEASE REMEMBER: Hit the reload button in your browser in order to see the latest predictions!!!
Northern Blog-O-Sphere 