Express & Star

The most northerly city in the United States just entered 65 days of darkness

And don’t even ask about how cold it’s going to be…

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It's dark in Utqiagvik

If the nights drawing in is getting you down, spare a thought for the residents of Utqiagvik.

The city in Alaska, which lies 320 miles (515km) north of the Arctic Circle, has just entered a 65-day polar night.

The sun set on the city’s 4,000 residents on Sunday and will not now reappear until January 23.

Locals reported that, because of cloud cover, there wasn’t too much of a sunset to see.

Temperatures in the city, which was known as Barrow until two years ago when residents voted to return to the city’s original Inupiaq name, are expected to fall to lows of around minus 30C (minus 22F) in that period.

Over the coming weeks, a number of other towns and cities in Alaska – including Kaktovik, Atqasuk and Point Hope – will wave goodbye to the sun for varying lengths of time.

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