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travel / great places / explorer / mj05
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Northern affairs
Landscape and climate
The coldest wind chill ever recorded in Canada was at Kugaaruk, Nunavut, on January 13, 1975. The temperature was -51°C, and the winds were 56 km/h, creating an incredibly chilling wind chill of -78°C.
Most of Nunavut lies above the Arctic Circle, though Ukkusiksalik National Park lies just below it.
Cliffs and valleys dot the park's landscape, providing habitats for peregrine falcons and endangered gyrfalcons. Polar bears
fish, swim, and lay lazily on the rocky coastline. Tidal flats and river mouths attract huge amounts of migrating birds.
The park also includes landforms like eskers, mudflats, cliffs and drumlins.
The topography of the region ranges from costal plains to mountains and permafrost is found everywhere in the territory. When building on permafrost, the Inuit build on raised blocks so as not to force warm air into the ground, which could melt the frost. Some of this permafrost melts in the short summer but quickly refreezes in the winter.
Nunavut's summers are some of the coolest on Earth and its winters can be extremely cold. An average summer day could be around 10°C and in the winter temperatures are often around -40°C.
Ukkusiksalik's climate is not much different from the rest of the territory. It's punctuated by low rainfall levels, low temperatures and high winds. The combination of the cold and wind makes for some of the coldest wind chills in North America. The longest days and warmest temperatures can be found from May to September while the coldest are from November to March or April.
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