For more than two months in summer, there is no darkness. The sun simply remains above the northern horizon at midnight. The late night apparition of the sun is a warm yellow, lending a bronze patina to the mountainsides and colouring the calm summer sea a precious golden. This is not a moment to be slept away, and the tromsoites, given boundless energy by all this light, mow their lawns, invite themselves to coffee somewhere or go for a spot of night fishing. Clubbers are blinded by the sun at closing time at three in the morning.

However, at times, the sun hides behind thick clouds, and the midnight light is the shining silver of the light summer rains, or the shades of grey of the moving summer clouds.