24 hours of darkness

This is the darkest time of the year. The days are short and the snow hasn’t arrived yet. And the darkest day of the year is still almost a month ahead. But count yourself lucky if you live in the capital region in the Southern part of Finland.

In Lapland the polar night – or kaamos, how it’s called in Finnish – started yesterday. That means that the night last longer than 24 hours. If you live up there you don’t see the sun for around two months. This doesn’t necessarily mean that there is no daylight at all. Around midday the so called astronomical twilight occurs. That means the sun won’t rise above the horizon but still will lighten up the sky a bit.