Northern Lights Forecast for Inuvik

Northern Lights in Inuvik

Inuvik is a town of about 3,100 people on the East Channel of the Mackenzie Delta in the Northwest Territories, some 200 km north of the Arctic Circle and 100 km from the Arctic Ocean. It was conceived in 1953 as a replacement for flood-prone Aklavik, further west in the delta.

Thirty days without a sunrise

At 68°N Inuvik has about 30 days of polar night, from early December to early January. The Sunrise Festival on the second weekend of January marks the sun’s return with dog sled races, fireworks and a community bonfire. January averages about −21 °C by day and −28 °C at night, and the record low is −56.7 °C, set in February 1968. The Muskrat Jamboree, running since 1957, follows in late March or early April with dog races, ice chiselling and a harpoon toss.

Boot Lake and the Igloo Church

Boot Lake is a few minutes’ walk from downtown, with a 3 km loop trail that is open all year and a lookout over the lake.

Our Lady of Victory, the Igloo Church, was built between 1958 and 1960 to a design by Brother Maurice Larocque, who made it round to limit damage from frost heave. The paintings inside are by Mona Thrasher. The Western Arctic Regional Visitor Centre opens only in summer; in winter the town’s Welcome Centre in Chief Jim Koe Park is open.

North to Tuktoyaktuk, west across the ice to Aklavik

The Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway opened in November 2017 as the first all-weather road to Canada’s Arctic coast: 138 km of gravel, about three hours each way. Tuktoyaktuk sits on the Arctic Ocean, with the Pingo Canadian Landmark about 5 km west of the hamlet.

From roughly late December to April an ice road crosses more than 110 km of frozen delta channels to Aklavik, a community of about 540 whose residents stayed put when Inuvik was built. Its motto is “Never Say Die”.

The Dempster’s ferries and ice bridges

Canadian North flies from Yellowknife, and Air North from Whitehorse and Dawson City.

By road, the Dempster Highway runs 736 km, mostly gravel, from the Klondike Highway 40 km east of Dawson City. Eagle Plains, at km 369, has the only hotel on the route. The Peel and Mackenzie rivers are crossed by ferry from June to October and by ice bridge from late November to April, so the road is cut at freeze-up and break-up. It stays open in winter, but it is no drive for anyone who has not handled Arctic winter roads before.