Alert, Nunavut

From Freepedia

Image:Orthographic projection centred over Alert Nunavut.png Alert is the northernmost permanent settlement in the world. It is located at 82°28′ N 62°30′ W, on the northeastern tip of Ellesmere Island on the shore of the Lincoln Sea, in the territory of Nunavut in Canada.

Alert had 5 permanent inhabitants in the 2001 census. Alert also has many temporary inhabitants as it hosts a military signals intelligence radio receiving facility at Canadian Forces Station Alert (CFS Alert), as well as a co-located Environment Canada weather station, a GAW atmosphere monitoring laboratory, and the Alert Airport.

The rugged terrain of the settlement is surrounded by hills and valleys. The shore is composed primarily of slate and shale, and the sea is covered with pack ice year-round. The local climate is actually semi-arid.

Sir George Nares was the first to reach the northern end of Ellesmere Island; he arrived on HMS Alert in 1875–1876. The weather station was established in 1950, and the military station in 1958.

Alert is one of a handful of settlements in Canada's north that was not renamed in the 1980s and 1990s when many towns in the Northwest Territories (of which Nunavut was a part until 1999) were given Inuktitut names.

Other settlements on Ellesmere Island: Eureka, Grise Fiord.

The nearest large Canadian city to Alert is Edmonton, Alberta, which at 3475 km is more distant than Stockholm (3282 km).