Is it true that the Sun never sets over Russia?

From March 23 to September 18, the Sun doesn’t set over Russia at all. Here’s how we calculated that.

Let’s start with the places that have polar days. Such territories are located more north than the Arctic Circle or the 66.56 parallel of north latitude. The closer to the North Pole, the longer a polar day becomes.

On a polar day, the Sun doesn’t set, instead only circling along the line of the horizon.

The northernmost settlement of Russia is the village of Dikson in Krasnoyarsk Territory. It’s located northward of the 73 latitude.

Robert Prascenis/Sputnik

The polar day starts in Dikson on May 3 and ends on August 10. That means the Sun there doesn’t set for a hundred days.

Apart from that, the territory of Russia spans 11 time zones. That means that, at certain days of the year, the Sun sets somewhere and immediately rises on the other side of the country.

The westernmost settlement of the country is the city of Baltiysk (Kaliningrad Region) – and it lies in the UTC+2 time zone. The easternmost one, the village of Uelen (Chukotka Autonomous Area), lies in the UTC+12 time zone. The difference between the two is 10 hours. When it’s 7:00 in Baltiysk, it’s 17:00 in Uelen. 

Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket/Getty Images

Citizens of Russia no longer move the clock one hour backwards for daylight savings, so there’s no separation between winter and summer time.

The period, during which the Sun never sets over Russia, begins on March 23/24.

On March 23 it sets in Baltiysk at 19:00 (by Greenwich Mean Time, or UTC, it’s March 23, 17:00). Almost at the same time, it rises in Uelen. There, though, it’s already March 24, 5:02 (but, by Greenwich Mean Time, or UTC, it’s the same March 23, 17:02).

The end of the “eternal” daylight is September 18/19.

On September 18, Baltiysk watches the sunset at 18:52 (by Greenwich Mean Time – on September 18, 16:52). Uelen, meanwhile, watches the sunrise on September 19 at 4:52 (by Greenwich Mean Time – on September 18, 16:52).

And just like that, the Sun doesn’t set over our country for exactly 180 calendar days. The rest of the year, there’s a gap between the sunset in the Russian West and the sunrise in the Russian East.

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