For those of you who are looking forward to an Arctic Voyage this summer with Discover the World, the Norwegian Met Office's website has handy updates as to weather forecasts for the Svalbard archipelago, including Longyearbyen, Ny Alesund, Hopen and Bjornoya. Remember, during the Arctic summertime there are plenty of daylight hours to enjoy the stunning scenery of the magnificent fjords and glaciers, and of course be on the look out for wildlife.
The hours of daylight also dictate the lines known as the 'polar circles'. Polar circles are found in both the northern and southern hemispheres and are defined as the lines around the globe at which the sun does not set for at least one night of the year. Currently, this is the case north of 66.5 degrees northern and southern latitude. The closer you are to the Poles (90 degrees), the more nights in summertime that the sun will stay above the horizon - about half of the year at the poles themselves. This phenomenon of sunlight all around the clock is often called the 'midnight sun' or 'polar day'. In central Spitsbergen, the polar day lasts for about four months without any sunset.
The midnight sun begins in Longyearbyen on around 20 April, and stays until around 22 August. The sun sits amazingly high in a bright blue sky on midsummer nights, even at midnight! In high summer therefore, this is a very special time to visit and the stillness of a land excursion at midnight in such spectacular surroundings is simply magical. True summer in central Spitsbergen lasts from late June to late August, when most of the non-glaciated terrain is free from lasting snow and plants are in bloom. Get those cameras and sunglasses at the ready!
