Arctic Stories #6. Arctic Wonders

Hello my dear readers! Time for another Arctic story. And today I want to speak about the Arctic wonders or the most beautiful Northern natural phenomena.

Let's start with the Aurora lights! I'll be very honest with you, I only saw them twice in my life. According to the National Geographic they are most often seen at 66.5 degrees North or South of the Equator. If you want to know, how they are formed, here is a great source: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/aurora/#:~:text=In%20the%20ionosphere%2C%20the%20ions,around%20the%20poles%E2%80%94an%20aurora.

Arkhangelsk is at 64.5 degrees North. There are photographers in my home city that chase Aurora lights on purpose and photograph them several times a year. That happens in winter, spring and autumn. Summers are too bright due to the polar nights.

The first time I saw the Aurora lights I was little, and I only remember my dad showing them to me. The second time was a few years ago on December 31st! We came to visit my parents together with my husband. That's when he first walked on the river from my very first story here and was completely terrified. :) To celebrate New Year we went to the summer house aka "dacha" of our friends. Normally dachas are not accessible in winter, everything is covered in meters of snow and roads are blocked. But our friends have one in an accessible place. And they have a great sauna there, called "banya". Now what do you do in banya in winter? Correct, go inside at 70-80C, then run out and lay in the snow, and then run back again. Here is what it looks like. True story! It's said to be a great way to make your body stronger and healthier.

I'll not try to seem brave to you. Only men did that. I took pictures :D. We also danced around The Christmas tree, sang New Year songs and had lots of fun. Now as days are quite short in winter, soon darkness started coming in. And we decided to go back to the city to continue celebrating. As we were getting outside into our cars we noticed green lights in the sky. That was Aurora borealis.

I was so happy that night! I could watch them all the way back home. And again several hours later when we went for a walk on New Year night. It was truly magical.

Another phenomenon that I love in the Arctic are window drawings. And no, we don't draw on windows ourselves. Nature does! It happens a lot in winter. I loved looking at them and exploring their shapes at our apartment, at school and in buses. They are extraordinarily beautiful. To this day I don't understand how they can be so perfect.

If you have seen snow (and I am sure many of your did), window drawings are formed in a similar way to snowflakes: https://www.noaa.gov/stories/how-do-snowflakes-form-science-behind-snow#:~:text=A%3A%20A%20snowflake%20begins%20to,That's%20the%20short%20answer.

And have you noticed how perfect snowflakes are? Window drawings are perfect too.

Till next time, where I'll share how kids spend summers in the Arctic. In the meantime, please, protect and restore our beautiful planet in any way you can.

With love, Elena Doms