Canadian Forces Station Alert - Ellesmere Island

Canadian Forces Station Alert lays claim to the title of being the northernmost permanently inhabited place on the planet. Located just 840 km from the North Pole, Alert is closer to Oslo Norway than it is to Edmonton, the closest large Canadian city.

Located in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, Canadian Forces Station Alert is named after HMS Alert, which was a British ship that happened to winter close by in 1875.

First permanent settlers arrived in the 1950s to establish the Joint Arctic Weather Station System. Soon after in 1958, the Canadian Forces established their presence in Alert.

Alert has few permanent inhabitants, sometimes numbering as low as five, but it does host many more temporary residents due to the shared function of Canadian Forces Station Alert, and an Environment Canada weather station.

To keep the settlement occupied there is a function airport. Alert is an unforgiving place where night and day dominate the seasons. From late March till the middle of September there is 24-hour daylight. And from the middle of October until the end of February, the sun does not make an appearance, culminating in 24-hour darkness. To make matters worse, temperatures rarely move above the freezing level. And in an emergency situation, help may not come very quickly, as only two ships have ever reached CFS Alert!

Because it is situated so close to the former Soviet Union (now Russia), Canadian Forces Station Alert played a crucial role during the Cold War. With the goal of intercepting radio signals, CFS Alert became a necessary station for the Canadian Forces and its NATO allies.

As a part of Canada's ongoing move to enforce territorial sovereignty in the wake of global warming and its opening up of the arctic, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a widely announced visit to CFS Alert in August 2006.