I have never been to the Canadian Arctic, but it’s something that is on my list and that I plan to do. And because of some random dinner conversation over the weekend, I have just added Eureka, Nunavut to my weather app so that I can keep tabs on what is the coldest place in Canada.

The average annual temperature is close to -20 degrees celsius, but as you can see from the above screenshot, it’s a bit colder than that right now. I have it placed next to Rio de Janeiro in my app for dramatic effect.

First established in 1947, Eureka is a research community / weather station at 80°N with apparently no permanent population. Staff rotate through it with more people coming in the summer months. There is no sunlight between October and February.

It is the third northernmost settlement in the world after Alert (which is also in Nunavut on Ellesmere Island) and Nord in Greenland. But again, Eureka is on average the coldest.

The weather station was established in partnership with the United States. Prior to this, we had very little data from the north. But there was a general understanding that having it would be valuable for improving forecasting across the continent.

So on April 7, 1947, six people showed up on the shorelines of Eureka, built some temporary structures (apparently they were done in time for dinner), and started reporting weather data. Now that data is available on my phone whenever I want it.