Perhaps you find yourself grabbing an extra cup of coffee this time of year, especially with the early sunsets to come with the season. The sunset in Tampa is just after 5:30 in the evening, but can you imagine living in a place where the sun will not rise the next day? That's the reality for one city in northern Alaska as it gears up for the last sunset of 2021. 

What You Need To Know

  • The sun will set in Utqiagvik, Alaska for the last time in 2021

  • Utqiagvik, Alaska will not see a sunrise for two months

  • Length of daylight decreases with latitude

  • Tampa's earliest sunset occurs on December 1

Utqiagvik, Alaska–formerly known as Barrow–will observe its last sunset of 2021 on November 18. Utqiagvik will see the sun for nearly an hour on Thursday before spending the next two months in the dark. 

Once the sun sets for the last time on Thursday, Utqiagvik will not see the sun rise until January 22. Even then, the sun will only rise above the horizon for about a half-hour. Can you imagine that?

The length of daylight decreases as you head north for just six months of the year, spanning from the fall equinox to the spring equinox. This is when the North Pole is tilted furthest away from the sun, leading to virtually no daylight.

The North Pole is tilted farthest from the sun on the winter solstice, resulting in the least amount of daylight for the Northern Hemisphere. In fact, everywhere north of the Arctic Circle stays in complete darkness on the winter solstice. 

When the Northern Hemisphere experiences the winter solstice, the Southern Hemisphere experiences the summer solstice. Therefore, the sun does not set for any location south of the Antarctic Circle. This is why the days get shorter as you head north this time of year and longer when you head south. 

The equator receives nearly equal amounts of daylight and darkness year-round. Cities such as Tampa will spend more time with daylight this time of year compared to cities farther north. 

So, when does the sunset begin to set later? It depends on your latitude. Cities that are farther north in latitude will experience their earliest sunset closer to the winter solstice on December 21.

This means Tampa will have its earliest sunset earlier than cities like Boston and Chicago. In fact, Tampa's earliest sunset occurs at 5:33 p.m. on December 1.

Cities farther north, like Boston, will not observe their earliest sunset until December 8 when it sets at 4:11 p.m. Anchorage, Alaska, which is much farther north, observes its earliest sunset on December 17, closer to the solstice. 

After reading all of this, doesn't it make you appreciate Tampa Bay that much more? Not only do we get more daylight than our friends up north, but we get beautiful weather, too!