2023-10-15 10:24:37
Published on October 15, 2023 at 12:24 p.m. Modified on October 15, 2023 at 12:59.
And suddenly, the sky starts to dance. In the calm of the clear Arctic night, luminous sails of intense green swirl above muffled heads. Time then stops, the cold no longer matters, because man finds himself faced with a prodigious natural spectacle, one of those that cannot be predicted or guaranteed to travelers from far away. It is the sun that illuminates the polar nights, a phenomenon explained by the interaction between its electrically charged particles and the gases found in the Earth’s upper atmosphere. For tens of minutes, even hours, the lights of fantastic hues seem to play with each other, chase each other and dive, turn on themselves, split the immensity of the sky, appear more intense or clearer, before finally disappearing in the far away, letting the stars return to their place in the stillness of the night. The technology pales in comparison to the power of this original painting, but it helps Norwegians be alerted when it occurs. Up there, they all have the Norway Lights app on their phones, which says Try, or Go, depending on the weather chances of seeing the Northern Lights.
It’s midnight. Tromso, northern Norway’s largest city, glistens below from the viewpoint of Fjellheisen, a cable car on the mainland, rising 420 meters above sea level. The island of Tromso, 70,000 inhabitants, is home to the most northern university in the world, which receives 10,000 students. Cross-country ski trails run right through the city, allowing students to go to ski lessons. Because snow is an integral part of the landscape here, with a snowy period lasting seven and a half months, from the end of September to mid-May. “It’s very pleasant,” say Vilde and Jacob, two thirty-somethings born and living in Tromso, who work in regional tourism. “The snow lights up the darkness, so during the two months of complete darkness, when the sun does not rise, from November 21 to January 21, it is not completely dark.” Norwegians spend their time outdoors, children even have the opportunity to enroll inoutdoor schoolthe public school outside, where the majority of lessons are given in the open air, often on the move, such as mathematics lessons where in the woods we count the number of trees per square meter or grams of berries collected to make jam.
Interested in this item?
Don’t miss any of our content published daily – subscribe now from 9.- CHF for the first month to access all our articles, files, and analyses.
Until October 22, up to 25% off our subscriptions.
CHECK OFFERS Good reasons to subscribe to Le Temps: Consult all unlimited content on the site and the mobile application Access the paper edition in digital version before 7 a.m. Benefit from exclusive privileges reserved for subscribers Access the archives
Already a subscriber? To log in
1697367793
#Northern #Norway #snow #arena