page_title: Alert, Nunavut
section_title: Climate
hierarchical_section_title: Alert, Nunavut / Climate
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Extension de la banquise au 15 septembre 2008 déterminé par le satellite AMSR-E. La terre montre la moyenne de la couverture neigeuse pour septembre 2004 (Blue Marble Next Generation). Les nuages sont obtenus par Blue Marble 2002 (Blue Marble:Clouds). Une partie de l'hémisphère nord de la Terre avec la banquise, nuage, étoile et localisation de la station météo en Alert
context_page_description: Alert, in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada, is the northernmost permanently inhabited place in the world, at latitude 82°30'05" north, 817 kilometres from the North Pole. The entire population of the census subdivision Baffin, Unorganized, is located here. As of the 2016 census, the population was reported as 62, an increase of 57 over the 2011 census. It takes its name from HMS Alert, which wintered 10 km east of the present station, off what is now Cape Sheridan, in 1875–1876.
  Alert has many temporary inhabitants, as it hosts a military signals intelligence radio receiving facility at Canadian Forces Station Alert, as well as a co-located Environment Canada weather station, a Global Atmosphere Watch atmosphere monitoring observatory, and the Alert Airport.
context_section_description: Alert has a polar climate, technically a tundra climate with characteristics of an ice cap climate. There is complete snow cover for at least 10 months of the year on average and snow from one year persists into the next year in protected areas, but enough melts to prevent glaciation. The warmest month, July, has an average temperature of 3.4 °C (38.1 °F), with only July and August averaging above freezing, and those are also the months where well over 90% of the rainfall occurs. Alert is also very dry, the fourth-driest locality in Nunavut, averaging only 158.3 mm (6.23 in) of precipitation per year. Most of this occurs during the months of July, August and September, mostly in the form of snow. On average Alert sees 17.4 mm (0.69 in) of rain, the least of any place in Nunavut, between June and September. Alert sees very little snowfall during the rest of the year. September is usually the month with the heaviest snowfall. February is the coldest month of the year with a mean temperature of −33.2 °C (−27.8 °F). The yearly mean, −17.7 °C (0.1 °F), is the second-coldest in Nunavut after Eureka. Snowfall can occur during any month of the year, and the average frost-free growing season in an average summer averages only five days.
  Being far north of the Arctic Circle, Alert experiences polar night from October 14 to February 28, and midnight sun from April 7 to September 4. There are two relatively short periods of twilight from about February 13 to March 22 and the second from September 19 to October 22. The civil polar night lasts from October 29 to February 11.
  Nautical polar night—where 24 hours are in effect completely dark with only a marginal astronomical twilight—occurs from November 19 to January 22.
caption: Alert (indicated by small text label near centre of image) within the Arctic region. Composite image showing extent of ice at September 15, 2008.
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