60th parallel north
Circle of latitude in the Northern Hemisphere
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Through Circle of latitude, Earth and Europe
Although it lies approximately twice as far away from the Equator as from the North Pole, the 60th parallel is half as long as the Equator line, due to the cosine of 60 degrees being 0.5. That is, a point on Earth’s surface at this latitude is half as far from the rotational axis as a point on the Equator is.
At this latitude, the Sun is visible for 18 hours, 7 minutes during the June solstice and 5 hours, 52 minutes during the December solstice. The maximum altitude of the Sun is 53.44° on 21 June and 6.56° on 21 December. The maximum altitude of the Sun is > 15.00º in October and > 8.00º in November.
The lowest latitude where white nights can be observed is approximately on this parallel. White nights in the 60th parallel north occur around the June Solstice (Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere).
During the summer solstice, nighttime does not get beyond nautical twilight, a condition which lasts throughout the month of June. It is possible to view both astronomical dawn and dusk every day between August 22 and April 21.
Around the world
Malachy Tallack wrote a book, Sixty Degrees North: Around the World in Search of Home, about his travels along the general line of the parallel, starting and finishing at Shetland.
Starting at the Prime Meridian and heading eastwards, the parallel 60° north passes through:
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Notable cities and towns on 60°N
- Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada
- Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, Canada
- Bergen, Vestland, Norway
- Oslo, Norway
- Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland
- Espoo, Uusimaa, Finland
- Saint Petersburg, Russia
- Lerwick, Scotland, UK
- Uppsala, Sweden
Canada
In Canada, the 60th parallel forms the southern mainland boundary of the northern territories of Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut with the western provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.
Accordingly, "north of 60" is an expression often used for the territories, although parts of Nunavut (the islands in Hudson Bay and James Bay) are located south of the 60th parallel, and parts of Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador are located north, to the east of Hudson Bay. A 1990s TV show on CBC about life in the Northwest Territories was called North of 60.
The 60th Parallel Territorial Park is on Mackenzie Highway between Alberta and Northwest Territories and it has a visitor centre there in the homeland of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation and the North Slave Métis Alliance.
Canada's only four corners are located at the intersection of the 60th parallel and the 102nd meridian west, between the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.
Greenland
Between 1776 and 1950, the 60th parallel formed the southern limit of the Royal Greenland Trade Department's exclusive monopoly on trade near the Dano-Norwegian and later Danish colonies of Greenland (1776–1782) and South Greenland (1782–1950).