CanadaCanadian Arctic ArchipelagoIsland
Somerset Island
24,786 km² of land in the Northwest Passage.
Satellite: Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX (CC BY 4.0). Outline and points © OpenStreetMap contributors / Natural Earth. North up.
In numbers
24,786km²
Area
1,030km
Coastline
measured on a simplified outline
481m
Highest point
0
People
1°C
Warmest sea
August
17km
To the mainland
When to go to Somerset Island
Good all year round.
The sea is warmest in August (1 °C) and coolest in January (-2 °C). The water never reaches 21 °C: bring a wetsuit.
Averages 1991–2020. Sea: NOAA OISST, the water within 35 km of the coast. Air, rain and sun: NASA POWER. Best months weigh warm afternoons (23–30 °C), sea of 24 °C or more and few wet days.
Island in Nunavut, Canada
Somerset Island is an island in Canada. It belongs to Canadian Arctic Archipelago. It covers 24,786 km², with 1,030 km of coastline. Its highest point rises to 481 m. Nobody lives on it. The nearest mainland is 17 km away.
Getting there
- Resolute Bay Airport (YRB)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 169 km in a straight lineCar hire at YZF airport (Yellowknife)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- 17 km from the mainlanddistance to the nearest continental coast
Plan the trip
Ferries, stays and things to do
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
On the island
What you find on Somerset Island.
- 134beaches
- 7named peaksLocal H.P. (487), Mount Oliver, Mount Walker and 4 more
- 10waterfalls
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, inside the island's outline. A low number may only mean nobody has mapped it yet.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Somerset Island in our other atlases
Everything Coastya, Peakyas, Lakeyas and Cascadyas know about what lies inside Somerset Island, each with its own numbers.
1beachCoastya
5lakesLakeyas
Largest lake
357km²
Stanwell-Fletcher Lake
according to Lakeyas
Warmest lake
7.5°C
Oliver Lake
surface water, warmest month · according to Lakeyas
Beach with the warmest sea
1.1°C
Rum Cove
sea in the warmest month · according to Coastya
5 lakes
on Lakeyas, the lake atlas
- Stanwell-Fletcher Lake357km²
- Fiona Lake29.8km²
- Macgregor Laird Lake6.0km²
- Sunday Lake0.94km²
- Oliver Lake0.72km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
The shape of the land.
On average the island stands 233 m above the sea. 32 % of it is below 200 m.
- 9 %0–50 m
- 23 %50–200 m
- 68 %200–500 m
Share of the island's area in each altitude band, from the Copernicus DEM (30 m, read at 30–240 m on large islands).
Size, for real
Next to islands you may know.
200 km
All outlines drawn to the same scale (Natural Earth and OpenStreetMap).
Month by month
The weather on the island.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon high (°C) | -28 | -30 | -25 | -15 | -5 | 3 | 9 | 6 | -2 | -11 | -21 | -25 |
| Night low (°C) | -33 | -35 | -32 | -22 | -11 | -1 | 3 | 0 | -6 | -16 | -25 | -30 |
| Sea (°C) | -2 | -2 | -2 | -2 | -1 | -1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | -1 | -1 | -2 |
| Rain (mm) | 15 | 13 | 16 | 18 | 27 | 46 | 53 | 53 | 40 | 32 | 20 | 16 |
| Wet days | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 9 | 13 | 14 | 14 | 12 | 9 | 6 | 4 |
| Sun h/day | — | 1.2 | 6.5 | 13.3 | 15.3 | 11.3 | 7.2 | 4.7 | 2.2 | 1.2 | 1.0 | — |
| Wind (km/h) | 18 | 17 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 19 | 18 | 18 | 18 |
Averages 1991–2020 for the ~55 km NASA POWER cell over the island; the sea from NOAA OISST.
Recent years
Warmer and cooler years at sea.
Each month's sea temperature compared with its 1991–2020 average, in degrees.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | +0.1 | +0.1 | +0.1 | +0.1 | −0.1 | −0.4 | −0.6 | +0.4 | −0.1 | −0.4 | −0.1 | +0.1 |
| 2021 | +0.1 | +0.1 | +0.1 | +0.1 | −0.1 | −0.2 | −0.4 | −0.7 | −0.9 | −0.3 | ±0.0 | +0.1 |
| 2022 | +0.1 | +0.1 | +0.1 | +0.1 | −0.1 | −0.6 | −1.3 | −0.1 | +0.5 | −0.4 | −0.1 | +0.1 |
| 2023 | +0.1 | +0.1 | +0.1 | +0.1 | −0.1 | −0.4 | −0.1 | −0.1 | +0.9 | +0.1 | ±0.0 | +0.1 |
| 2024 | +0.1 | +0.1 | +0.1 | +0.1 | −0.1 | −0.5 | −0.4 | −0.6 | +1.1 | +0.6 | ±0.0 | +0.1 |
| 2025 | +0.1 | +0.1 | +0.1 | +0.1 | ±0.0 | −0.1 | +0.6 | +0.4 | +0.8 | +0.4 | +0.2 | +0.2 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More islands nearby.
Prince of Wales IslandCanada33,339 km²191 km away
Cornwallis IslandCanada6,995 km²359 m214 km away
Devon IslandCanada55,247 km²1,920 m277 km away
Bathurst IslandCanada16,042 km²389 m338 km away
Stefansson IslandCanada4,473 km²267 m391 km away
Byam Martin IslandCanada1,158 km²157 m392 km away
North Kent IslandCanada587 km²600 m392 km away
Alexander IslandCanada484 km²180 m396 km awayAbout these numbers
| Names, area, population | Wikidata (Q212219) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Outline | Natural Earth · public domain |
| Sea temperature | NOAA OISST v2.1 · 1991–2020 |
| Climate | NASA POWER · 1991–2020 |
| Relief, 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Beaches, ports, lighthouses, trails | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Towns | GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Beaches, mountains, lakes and waterfalls | Coastya, Lakeyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST; HydroLAKES (Messager et al. 2016) · CC BY 4.0, LakeTEMP (Korver et al. 2024) · CC BY 4.0 |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.
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mountains
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waterfalls
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canyons
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