午夜的太阳，挪威斯瓦尔巴群岛 Midnight sun in Svalbard, Norway (© Nature Picture Library/Alamy)

午夜的太阳，挪威斯瓦尔巴群岛 Midnight sun in Svalbard, Norway (© Nature Picture Library/Alamy)

无尽的夏夜 Endless summer

Midnight sun

Don't lose your sunglasses! At least not during this time of year in Svalbard, Norway, when the sun crests the horizon and never dips below it again for more than five months. From about April 19 to August 23, it's nothing but sunshine on this island above the Arctic Circle, more than 500 miles north of mainland Norway. It's not quite a day at the beach, with average summertime high temps of 39 to 45 degrees Fahrenheit (toasty compared to average wintertime temps of 5 to 9 degrees). And who knows how far it is to the nearest Ray-Ban store?

Norway is one of eight nations in the Northern Hemisphere that experience the phenomenon known as the 'midnight sun' (but the only one that lays claim to the name 'Land of the Midnight Sun'). Parts of the United States (Alaska), Canada, Iceland, Finland, Sweden, Russia, and the Kingdom of Denmark (Greenland) also see the sun at local midnight during the summer months. In these northernmost climes the path of the sun is often cause for celebration. Svalbard celebrates Sun Festival Week when the sun first emerges in early March. St. Petersburg, Russia, is renowned for its White Nights of endless twilight, and Midsummer is a huge outdoor party in many northern nations. You'll want to get your sunshine while you can, because the endless dark of the polar winter lasts just as long.

午夜的太阳

别把太阳镜弄丢了！至少在挪威斯瓦尔巴特岛每年的这个时候，太阳升到地平线上，并且在五个多月内再也不会下降到地平线以下。从大约4月19日到8月23日，在挪威大陆以北500多英里的北极圈上空的这个岛屿上，除了阳光什么都没有。海滩上的天气不太好，夏季的平均高温为39到45华氏度（相比之下，冬季的平均温度为5到9华氏度）。谁知道离最近的Ray Ban商店有多远？

挪威是北半球经历“午夜太阳”现象的八个国家之一（但也是唯一一个声称拥有“午夜太阳之地”名称的国家）。美国（阿拉斯加）、加拿大、冰岛、芬兰、瑞典、俄罗斯和丹麦王国（格陵兰岛）的部分地区在夏季也会在当地午夜看到太阳。在这些最北端的气候中，太阳的路径往往值得庆祝。斯瓦尔巴特庆祝太阳节周，太阳在3月初首次出现。俄罗斯圣彼得堡以其无尽暮色的白夜而闻名，而仲夏是许多北方国家的大型户外派对。你会希望尽可能地享受阳光，因为极地冬天无尽的黑暗也会持续同样长的时间。