Cape Sheridan is on the northeastern coast of

Ellesmere Island Ellesmere Island (; ) is Canada's northernmost and List of Canadian islands by area, third largest island, and the List of islands by area, tenth largest in the world. It comprises an area of , slightly smaller than Great Britain, and the total ...

, Canada situated on the Lincoln Sea in the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five oceanic divisions. It spans an area of approximately and is the coldest of the world's oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, ...

, on the mouth of Sheridan River, west bank. It is one of the closest points of land to the geographic

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

, approximately to the north,

Cape Columbia Cape Columbia is the northernmost point of land of Canada, located on Ellesmere Island in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut. It marks the westernmost coastal point of Lincoln Sea in the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's northernmost point of l ...

is however some closer to the Pole. Cape Sheridan was the wintering site of

Robert Peary Robert Edwin Peary Sr. (; May 6, 1856 – February 20, 1920) was an American explorer and officer in the United States Navy who made several expeditions to the Arctic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was long credited as being ...

's final quest to reach the north pole in 1908 / 1909; the Cape Sheridan Depot being located there. Alert, the northernmost permanently inhabited place in the world, is located to the west.

Climate

Climate data is obtained from Alert Airport, approximately to the northwest. The area has a

polar climate The polar climate regions are characterized by a lack of warm summers but with varying winters. Every month a polar climate has an average temperature of less than . Regions with a polar climate cover more than 20% of the Earth's area. Most of ...

, technically a

tundra climate The tundra climate is a polar climate sub-type located in high latitudes and high mountains. It is classified as ET according to the Köppen climate classification. It is a climate which at least one month has an average temperature high enough ...

( ET) with characteristics of an

ice cap climate An ice cap climate is a polar climate where no mean monthly temperature exceeds . The climate generally covers areas at high altitudes and Polar regions of Earth, polar regions (60–90° north and south latitude), such as Antarctica and some of ...

(EF). 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 , with only July and August averaging above freezing, and those are also the months where well over 90 per cent of the rainfall, which averages only per year, occurs. Rain is rare in June and September and virtually unheard of during the remaining eight months of the year. Alert is the fourth-driest locality in Nunavut and averaging only of

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwe ...

per year, the vast majority of this occurring as snow. The heaviest snowfalls occur during July to October, and Alert sees relatively little snowfall during the winter months. September is usually the month with the heaviest snowfall. February is the coldest month of the year with a mean temperature of . The yearly mean, , is the second-coldest in Nunavut after Eureka. Snowfall can occur during any month of the year, and the typical year sees no more than five days in a row without frost. Average highs rise above freezing only in mid-June and drop below freezing at the end of August. Being far north of the

Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the northernmost of the five major circle of latitude, circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth at about 66° 34' N. Its southern counterpart is the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circl ...

, the area experiences

polar night Polar night is a phenomenon that occurs in the polar regions of Earth, northernmost and southernmost regions of Earth when the Sun remains below the horizon for more than 24 hours. This only occurs inside the polar circles. The opposite phen ...

from approximately 14 October to 27 February, and

midnight sun Midnight sun, also known as polar day, is a natural phenomenon that occurs in the summer months in places north of the Arctic Circle or south of the Antarctic Circle, when the Sun remains visible at the local midnight. When midnight sun is see ...

from 7 April to 4 September. There are two relatively short periods of twilight from about 13 February to 24 March and the second from 18 September to 29 October. The

civil polar night Polar night is a phenomenon that occurs in the northernmost and southernmost regions of Earth when the Sun remains below the horizon for more than 24 hours. This only occurs inside the polar circles. The opposite phenomenon, polar day or mi ...

lasts from 29 October to 13 February.

Notes

References

Headlands of Qikiqtaaluk Region Ellesmere Island {{QikiqtaalukNU-geo-stub