Arctic outpost helps scientists track climate change

EUREKA, Nunavut — Sixty years ago Saturday, the "Frozen Chosen" founded this tiny outpost at the top of the world and opened up the High Arctic for the first time to weather research.

"We were really isolated. The only thing you could do was work. Otherwise, the mind could wander and you were likely to go crazy," recalled Justin (Jud) Courtney, 87, who led the joint Canadian-U.S. effort to build five northern weather stations six decades ago.

The group's first stop was Eureka, on the west coast of Ellesmere Island less than 650 miles south of the North Pole, on April 7, 1947.

They arrived in the morning aboard a DC-3 aircraft equipped with landing skis, and by 7 p.m. the five Americans and Canadians were transmitting their first weather report to the world using a four-watt radio powered by a hand-cranked generator.

Since then, the station, which is now exclusively operated by the federal agency Environment Canada, has generated thousands of weather reports and helped keep the rest of the country informed about what kind of conditions to expect from the Far North. The research is also now helping scientists around the world track and analyze climate change.

Courtney, who in 1947 was working for the Canadian weather service, said the need for the stations became obvious during World War II.

"The Arctic was a blank area for us when it came to weather reports. From time to time, we'd get weather roaring out of there and it would take everybody by surprise," he said in a telephone interview from his home in Penticton, British Columbia.

The weather stations became a top priority after the hot war ended and the Cold War began, along with fears of Russians invading.

The men were sent by the U.S. and Canadian governments to act both as weathermen and human flagpoles. The Americans originally dispatched were soldiers, while the Canadians did the meteorological work.

"They were really the Frozen Chosen," said Al Gaudet, Eureka station's current manager. "They came here to absolutely nothing and within a few hours they had their tents up, a hot meal and were sending out a weather report."

The "chosen" would barely recognize Eureka today. The makeshift tents are gone, replaced by state-of-the art buildings and equipment, including a relatively new staff residence Gaudet has nicknamed the "Sheraton of the North."

However, visitors to the station will realize quickly this is no resort. The main entrance to the staff barracks is a heavy meat locker-style door, and the cluster of snow-encrusted buildings teems with computers and high-tech meteorological gadgets.