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Sun sets forever on Barrow, Alaska

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On 18 November 2016 at 13:31 local time, the sun set forever on America’s northernmost city of Barrow, Alaska.

That is because on Thursday the town officially changed its name to its original indigenous title, Utqiagvik.

The city of about 4,300 people, which sits above the Arctic Circle, experiences more than two months of 24-hour darkness each winter.

Meteorologists predict that the sun will not rise again over the city until the afternoon of 22 January, 2017.
Due to a tilt in the earth’s rotation, the sun never rises above the horizon in polar regions during the winter, and never sets there during the summer.

Residents of the city then known as Barrow voted in October to restore its traditional Inupiaq name, Utqiagvik, which means “a place to gather roots” in the local language.

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