Belle Isle (French for "Beautiful Island") is an uninhabited island slightly more than off the coast of

Labrador , nickname = "The Big Land" , etymology = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Canada , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 ...

and slightly less than north of

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

at the Atlantic entrance to the Strait of Belle Isle, which takes its name. Named by the French explorer

Jacques Cartier Jacques Cartier ( , also , , ; br, Jakez Karter; 31 December 14911 September 1557) was a French- Breton maritime explorer for France. Jacques Cartier was the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of ...

, the island lies on the shortest shipping lane between the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and is on the main north-south shipping route to

Hudson Bay Hudson Bay ( crj, text=ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, translit=Wînipekw; crl, text=ᐐᓂᐹᒄ, translit=Wînipâkw; iu, text=ᑲᖏᖅᓱᐊᓗᒃ ᐃᓗᐊ, translit=Kangiqsualuk ilua or iu, text=ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᖅ, translit=Tasiujarjuaq; french: b ...

and the

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...

. The northern terminus of the

International Appalachian Trail The International Appalachian Trail (IAT; french: Sentier international des Appalaches, SIA) was originally a hiking trail which ran from Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, in Maine, through New Brunswick, to the Gaspé Peninsula of ...

is on Belle Isle.

Geography

Belle Isle rises to about at its highest point and is in area, long and wide. It is nearly from either coast, but it is slightly closer to the Labrador side of the Strait of Belle Isle, and it has a lighthouse (supported by

flying buttresses The flying buttress (''arc-boutant'', arch buttress) is a specific form of buttress composed of an arch that extends from the upper portion of a wall to a pier of great mass, in order to convey lateral forces to the ground that are necessary to pu ...

) at both its northern and its southern ends. Officially uninhabited, the island has some seasonal occupation during fishing season. Belle Isle is the northernmost peak of the

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. The ...

, which extend in various shapes over southwest to

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = " Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. Ice patterns show that the island lies at the meeting point of two sea currents. The Labrador Current flows from the northwest, and a smaller current, driven by dominant westerly winds, flows from the southwest. Flow lines in sea ice give a sense of the movement of the ice. Ice floes embedded in the Labrador Current appear as a relatively open pattern. Sea ice with a denser pattern enters from the strait, banking against the west side of Belle Isle. Tendrils flow around capes at both ends of the island, with an ice-free "shadow" on the opposite, downstream side.

Eddies In fluid dynamics, an eddy is the swirling of a fluid and the reverse current created when the fluid is in a turbulent flow regime. The moving fluid creates a space devoid of downstream-flowing fluid on the downstream side of the object. Fluid ...

off the western coast in the ice patterns, indicated by curved arrows in this photograph, show the place in which the currents interact north and west of the island.

Climate

Belle Isle has a

subarctic climate The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of an ocean, g ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

''Dfc''), exceptionally cold for a coastal location so far south as the 51st parallel. As an illustration,

Dunkirk Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.

on the opposite side of the Atlantic averages warmer for the year as a whole, due to the contrasting currents on the eastern and western sides of the

Icelandic Low The Icelandic Low is a semi-permanent centre of low atmospheric pressure found between Iceland and southern Greenland and extending in the Northern Hemisphere winter into the Barents Sea. In the summer, it weakens and splits into two centres, ...

. The climate features short, cool summers and long, severely cold winters lasting most of the year. Precipitation peaks during the warmer months of June to September in the form of rain.

References

External links

Strait of Belle Isle ecoregion
by Captain James Cook {{coord, 51, 55, 44, N, 55, 21, 33, W, region:CA-NL_type:isle, display=title Uninhabited islands of Newfoundland and Labrador

Geography

Climate

See also

References

External links