Alert, Nunavut

Alert, in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada, is the northernmost continuously inhabited place in the world. The location is on Ellesmere Island (in the Queen Elizabeth Islands) at latitude 82°30'05" north, 817 km (508 mi) from the North Pole. It takes its name from the Royal Navy vessel HMS Alert, which wintered 10 km (6.2 mi) east of the present station off what is now Cape Sheridan in 1875–1876.

All Alert residents are temporary, typically serving three- to six-month tours of duty there. They staff a military signals intelligence radio receiving facility at Canadian Forces Station Alert (CFS Alert, which includes Alert Airport), as well as the Dr. Neil Trivett Global Atmosphere Watch Observatory, a co-located weather station and monitoring observatory, both operated by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC).

In the 2021 census, the permanent population was recorded as 0.

Alert is named after HMS Alert, a British ship that wintered about 10 km (6.2 mi) away in 1875–76. The ship's captain, George Nares, and his crew were the first recorded Europeans to reach the northern end of Ellesmere Island. Over the following decades, several other expeditions passed through the area, most notably Robert Peary during his expedition to reach the North Pole in 1909.

Shortly after the end of World War II, Charles J. Hubbard of the United States Weather Bureau aroused interest in the United States and Canada for the establishment of a network of Arctic stations. His plan, in broad perspective, envisaged the establishment of two main stations, one in Greenland and the other on the archipelago, which could be reached by sea supply. These main stations would then serve as advance bases from which a number of smaller stations would be established by air. The immediate plans contemplated the establishment of weather stations only, but it was thought that a system of weather stations would also provide a nucleus of transportation, communications, and settlements, which would greatly aid programs of research in many other fields of science. It was recognized that ultimate action would depend on international cooperation, since the land masses involved were under Canadian and Danish control.

Following negotiations between the United States and Canadian governments, a group of five weather stations was established, known as the Joint Arctic Weather Stations (JAWS). On the Canadian side, the stations were to be operated by the Department of Transport (DOT). The locations for each station were surveyed in 1946, and a cache of supplies was dropped at Alert in 1948 by USS Edisto. Alert was the last of the five to be settled when the first twelve personnel (eight permanent staff and four to assist with construction) arrived on April 9, 1950. Construction began immediately, with the first priority being the creation of an ice runway on Alert Inlet before work began on the permanent all-season runway on Cape Belknap. Until its completion, supplies were parachuted in.

On July 30, 1950, nine crew members of an Avro Lancaster aircraft, operated by the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), died in a crash while making an airdrop of supplies to the station.

The last United States personnel were withdrawn on October 31, 1970, and the following year operation of the weather station was transferred to the newly created Department of the Environment, with the Department of Transport retaining control of airfield operations for several more years.