Member-only story
Living Alaska, Time
Time is different in Alaska than anywhere else in the world. I am not talking about the space-time continuum or outer space. Just regular old time, as in your clock. I used to wear a watch on my wrist. Like everyone else these days I just use my phone to tell me the time. So how can time be different in Alaska. Well, they passed a law in Alaska. There is just one time in Alaska, Alaskan time.
If you look at a World Map you will see that Alaska is a Big State. It is 1,600 miles long and 2,600 miles wide. But we have only one time zone. I imagine the confusion of someone from the lower 48 when you travel 2,103 miles for your job, and it is still the same time. Tomorrow is the winter solstice. It is the shortest day of the year. At my home in Ketchikan, it gets dark about 3:15 in the afternoon. Yesterday I was in Kodiak, and it got dark at 4:30 in the afternoon. But Kodiak is north or Ketchikan by several hundred miles.
Intuitively, the farther north you go the earlier it gets dark in the winter. But not always in Alaska. It doesn’t happen that way because there is only one time zone in Alaska and as you go West the sun will set later in the day. It gets confusing if you follow the sun, but it makes it easy on Mariners that travel several thousand miles in their job. This week we have traveled 2,103 miles from our starting point. The State of Washington is one hour later than Alaska…
