| Cape Sheridan | |
| Type: | Cape |
| Map: | Canada Nunavut |
| Location: | Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada |
| Water Bodies: | Lincoln Sea |
Cape Sheridan is on the northeastern coast of Ellesmere Island, Canada situated on the Lincoln Sea in the Arctic Ocean, on the mouth of Sheridan River, west bank. It is one of the closest points of land to the geographic North Pole, approximately to the north, Cape Columbia is however some closer to the Pole.
Cape Sheridan was the wintering site of Robert Peary's final quest to reach the north pole in 1908 / 1909; the Cape Sheridan Depot being located there.
Alert, the northernmost permanently inhabited place in the world, is located to the west.
Climate data is obtained from Alert Airport, approximately to the northwest.
The area has a polar climate, technically a tundra climate (ET) with characteristics of an ice cap climate (EF). There is complete snow cover for at least 10 months of the year on average and snow from one year persists into the next year in protected areas, but enough melts to prevent glaciation. The warmest month, July, has an average temperature of, with only July and August averaging above freezing, and those are also the months where well over 90 per cent of the rainfall, which averages only per year, occurs. Rain is rare in June and September and virtually unheard of during the remaining eight months of the year. Alert is the fourth-driest locality in Nunavut and averaging only of precipitation per year, the vast majority of this occurring as snow. The heaviest snowfalls occur during July to October, and Alert sees relatively little snowfall during the winter months. September is usually the month with the heaviest snowfall.
February is the coldest month of the year with a mean temperature of . The yearly mean,, is the second-coldest in Nunavut after Eureka. Snowfall can occur during any month of the year, and the typical year sees no more than five days in a row without frost. Average highs rise above freezing only in mid-June and drop below freezing at the end of August.
Being far north of the Arctic Circle, the area experiences polar night from approximately 14 October to 27 February, and midnight sun from 7 April to 4 September. There are two relatively short periods of twilight from about 13 February to 24 March and the second from 18 September to 29 October. The civil polar night lasts from 29 October to 13 February.[1]