Daylight Today

Akureyri sits at 65.7°N — about 100 km south of the Arctic Circle (66.56°N). So the sun does technically rise and set every day of the year: there is no true midnight sun and no true polar night in town.

But it comes close. Around the summer solstice the sun dips only just below the horizon, and it never gets properly dark — the long Nordic twilight keeps the sky light through the small hours. Around the winter solstice the sun clears the fjord's mountain walls for only a few hours.

December averages about 3 hours 24 minutes of daylight, and from November to January the town gets under an hour of actual sunshine a day on average — partly the low sun, partly the cloud and the mountains that box in the fjord. Residents feel the swing in energy and sleep; the swimming pools and their hot tubs are a big part of how the town gets through it.

Akureyrarbær also governs Grímsey, the little island ~40 km offshore that the Arctic Circle actually crosses. Unlike the mainland town, Grímsey does get a true midnight sun around late June — a day trip north for the full polar-day experience.