Setting the Hills Ablaze on Solstice

The newspaper's daily forecast summed up our lack of solar radiation all too accurately the other day: "Bitterly cold with ineffective midday sunshine."

Ineffective is an apt adjective to describe how the sun warms Alaskans this time of year. Even when it's shining orange on our faces, the sun doesn't feel very hot as we approach the winter solstice, the day in which the North Pole is swiveled as far away as it can get from the sun.

On this year's solstice, December 21, sun worshipers may want to warm their toes by following some ancient advice: plan a celebration.

According to Jerry Dennis, the author of the book It's Raining Frogs and Fishes---Four Seasons of Natural Phenomena and Oddities of the Sky, the winter solstice has long been celebrated by observers of the natural world. In a Yule Girth festival that predates Christmas, the Goths and Saxons marked the winter solstice by building huge bonfires on hilltops. The leaping flames were a symbolic attempt to rekindle the sluggish sun.

A good time to set an Alaska hilltop ablaze this winter solstice would be 5:23 p.m., the official National Weather Service time when the sun is most distant from us. People who live along the Arctic Circle, the imaginary line 23.5 degrees south of the North Pole, will need to put a lot of logs on the fire to encourage the sun, however. The circle, which runs longitudinally across Alaska through Fort Yukon, Chalkyitsik, Allakaket, Selawik and just south of Kotzebue at 66.5 degrees north latitude, marks a solar boundary. On and above the circle, the sun won't rise at all on December 21.

But don't cry for Selawik. The folks in Barrow haven't seen the sun since it set at 1:48 p.m. on November 18. After enduring 65 days of darkness, residents will finally glimpse the sun again on January 23rd, 1995, when it will pop above the horizon for an hour and 15 minutes.

Although it won't make us any warmer, it seems comforting to know that Alaska receives the same amount of daylight each year as Ecuador, only ours is packaged differently. Those at the equator experience much more consistent day length than we do, never straying too far from the 12 hours of sunlight radiating during autumn and spring equinoxes. By contrast, Alaskans ride a dramatic roller coaster that peaks on June 21st, the summer solstice, during which well over 20 hours of sunlight beam over most of the state.

As winter solstice grows nigh, Alaskans throughout our vast state will experience varying amounts of minimum daylight. On December 21 in Fairbanks, for example, the sun is scheduled to rise at 10:59 a.m. and to set at 2:41 p.m., giving Interior residents daylight for three hours and 42 minutes. In Anchorage, the sun has the potential to shine from 10:14 a.m. until 3:42 p.m. for a total of five hours and 28 minutes. If it's not cloudy in Ketchikan, the sun could radiate there from 8:12 a.m. until 3:18 p.m. for seven hours and five minutes. Wow.

Alaskans might see the sun on the solstice, but we probably won't feel it. Radiation from the sun, our closest star at 93 million miles away, comes to us in parallel rays. Solar intensity is not felt much at high latitudes because the sun's rays cover a much greater surface area near the poles than they do near the equator due to the curvature of the earth. That curve also means the sun's rays need to travel through more of the earth's atmosphere to reach Alaska, which further dilutes the solar radiation reaching our state.

Optimists see through the darkness and celebrate the winter solstice as a new beginning. As the earth begins its slow nod back toward the sun, a six-minute increase in daylight each day is scheduled to hit Interior Alaska in late January. This increase will stay fairly consistent until the summer solstice.

For those who can't wait for late January, see you on the hilltop at 5:23 p.m.