Located in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada, it is the northernmost permanently inhabited place in the world. It takes its name from HMS Alert, which wintered 10km (6.2mi) east of the present station off what is now Cape Sheridan, Nunavut in 1875-1876.
Weather station
Alert (then part of the Northwest Territories) was first inhabited by employees of the Canadian Department of Transport and the United States Weather Bureau in 1950 when the Joint Arctic Weather Station (JAWS) was established. An airfield and small building were built to service various weather monitoring equipment.