Northern Lights Forecast for Utqiaġvik (Barrow)

Northern Lights in Utqiaġvik

Utqiaġvik, called Barrow until 2016, is the northernmost city in the United States: about 4,900 people on the Chukchi Sea coast of Alaska at 71.3°N, about 330 miles north of the Arctic Circle, with no road to anywhere else. The Geophysical Institute’s forecasts name it among the places where even low-level displays can be overhead. What stops you here is the sky: Utqiaġvik is completely overcast a little over half the year, and ice fog is common in winter.

Polar night and the midnight sun

The sun sets around November 18 and does not rise again until about January 23, some 66 days later. Even in the polar night a few hours of twilight come around midday, and the rest of the day is dark. At the other end of the year the sun stays up from about May 10 to August 2, and the bright nights on either side of that leave the dark season at roughly September to March.

Cold and wind on the Chukchi coast

February is the coldest month, averaging −11.9°F, and the monthly average stays below 0°F from December through March. The record low is −56°F. The wind matters more than the thermometer: it averages 12 mph, mostly from the east, and winds of 40 to 60 mph have been recorded in every month.

Polar bears at the edge of town

Town is small and its lights are easy to leave behind, but the edge of town is polar bear country. The North Slope Borough says bears come back to the coast with the pack ice in fall and may be drawn into communities looking for food, and that in winter they roam the ice in the dark and can visit villages. The Borough’s advice: watch your surroundings, be careful around carcasses and open leads, never approach a bear, and if one comes toward you get into a building or a vehicle. In practice, watch from beside a building or a car, not out on the beach or the tundra on foot.

Point Barrow, the Iñupiat Heritage Center and the NOAA observatory

The Iñupiat Heritage Center, affiliated with New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park, has a traditional room where elders and artists teach crafts. Point Barrow, or Nuvuk, 9 miles northeast, is the northernmost point of the United States, where the Chukchi Sea meets the Beaufort. On the tundra about 5 miles northeast of town, NOAA’s Barrow Atmospheric Baseline Observatory has been measuring the Arctic atmosphere since 1973.

Flights in, and the barge once a summer

Alaska Airlines flies jets to Utqiaġvik from Anchorage, and smaller planes come from Fairbanks. The airport is in town, and heavy freight comes in on a barge once a summer.