1. “A Nuuk introduction”
By John Harry Enggaard, Greenland University, BCS 311 Assignment 1
Instructor , LeeAnn Fishback, BCS 311 A1 – Land & environment

2. The culturehouse Katuaq
The world’s northernmost capital, with a population of aprox. 16.000 citizens.
Founded by Hans Egede 29th of august ,1728 and named Godthåb, now Nuuk.
The house of Hans Egede still stands today.
The municipality is called Sermersooq and is the second largest in the world. It
is governed by mayor, Aasi Chemnitz Narup. Postal code for Nuuk is 3900
Nuuk covers an area of aprox. 265 square miles(690km2)

3. We define the circumpolar North as that portion of the northern hemisphere
lying north of the 55th parallel of latitude
The circumpolar north is divided into three categories :
• the Subarctic zone(55–60degrees north latitude)
• the Arctic zone (60–75degrees north latitude)
• the Polar zones (75–90degrees north latitude)
Nuuk is situated in the arctic zone, with summer average temperatures
not higher than 10 degress celsius, which is another definition on the
arctic area.

4. Current Weather in Nuuk
in 230 ft / 70 m Altitude
Last Updated on October 4, 11:50 AM WGST
light snow
Temperature: 32 °F (0 °C) / Windchill: -3.6 °C
Wind speed: 7.00 mph / 11.27 km/h
Rel.Humidity: 100 %
Pressure: 1017 mbar = hPa
© Weather Underground NOAA Weather
Station
Nuuk Coordinates: 64°10′30″N 51°44′20″W

5. The best website in english with basic information about Nuuk is on
wikipedia. It gives a fine broad description on what Nuuk is all about.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuuk
Another more mainstream site, but still interesting is :
http://www.greenland.com/en/explore-greenland/capital-
region.aspx
(This website just received an “oscar” for worlds best tourismsite)
I think these two website locations gives both actual reliable
information about Nuuk plus more cultural oriented information
and approaches to other websites and institutions in Greenland.

6. Nuuk is situated in a polar climate area in the arctic zone. According
to KG climate classification below, Nuuk is classified in a “ET” climate zone.
Regions with a polar climate are characterized by a lack of warm summers (specifically,
no month having an average temperature of 10 °C (50 °F) or higher). Regions with polar
climate cover over 20% of the Earth. The sun shines 24 hours in the summer, and barely
ever shines at all in the winter (see midnight sun and polar night). Polar climate results in
treeless tundra, glaciers, or a permanent or semi-permanent layer of ice.

7. Climate data for Nuuk
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record
11 11 12 13 16 23 24 22 17 18 14 15 24
high °C
(52) (52) (54) (55) (61) (73) (75) (72) (63) (64) (57) (59) (75)
(°F)
Average
−4.6 −4.7 −5.1 −1.2 3.1 7.0 9.9 9.3 6.0 1.4 −1.3 −3.5 1.4
high °C
(23.7) (23.5) (22.8) (29.8) (37.6) (44.6) (49.8) (48.7) (42.8) (34.5) (29.7) (25.7) (34.5)
(°F)
Average
−10 −10.7 −10.7 −6.3 −1.7 1.1 3.5 3.5 1.4 −2.7 −5.9 −8.6 −3.9
low °C
(14) (12.7) (12.7) (20.7) (28.9) (34.0) (38.3) (38.3) (34.5) (27.1) (21.4) (16.5) (25.0)
(°F)
Record
−29 −27 −28 −21 −12 −6 −2 −3 −8 −14 −18 −26 −29
low °C
(−20) (−17) (−18) (−6) (10) (21) (28) (27) (18) (7) (0) (−15) (−20)
(°F)
Precipita
40 47 49 47 55 62 87 85 89 66 73 74 774
tion mm
(1.57) (1.85) (1.93) (1.85) (2.17) (2.44) (3.43) (3.35) (3.5) (2.6) (2.87) (2.91) (30.47)
(inches)
Avg.
precipita
tion days 9 9 10 9 9 8 10 9 12 10 11 10 116
(≥ 1.0
mm)
Mean
monthly
31 84 186 240 186 150 186 124 90 62 30 0 1,369
sunshine
hours
Source #1: World Meteorological Organization (UN)[15]
Source #2: BBC Weather

8. FIG 1
Date Sunrise Sunset Length Change Dawn Dusk Length Change As we see in
Today 07:49 18:40 10:51 07:01 19:28 12:27 fig. 1.
(measured
00:06 00:07
+1 day 07:52 18:37 10:45
shorter
07:04 19:24 12:20
shorter
from this day,
the 5th of
+1
08:10 18:16 10:06
00:45
07:21 19:04 11:43
00:44 oktober 2012)
week shorter shorter
+2 01:31 01:27 Nuuk has a
08:31 17:51 9:20 07:41 18:41 11:00
weeks shorter shorter total daylight
on 10.51min.
+1 03:15 03:01
08:22 15:58 7:36 07:27 16:53 9:26
month shorter shorter
In 3 months
+2
09:55 14:40 4:45
06:06
08:42 15:53 7:11
05:16 the total of
months shorter shorter
daylight will
+3 06:20 05:26 be 4.31min.
10:16 14:47 4:31 09:01 16:02 7:01
months shorter shorter
The closer we
come to the
north pole the
+6 03:10 03:17
months
06:30 20:31 14:01
longer
05:39 21:23 15:44
longer less daylight
we see .
.

9. The monthly average amount of the total solar radiation incident on a
horizontal surface at the surface of the earth for a given month,
averaged for that month over the 22-year period (Jul 1983 - Jun 2005).
Each monthly averaged value is evaluated as the numerical average of
3-hourly values for the given month.
Source:
NASA Langley Research Center Atmospheric Science Data Center.
Nuuk/ Greenland - Solar energy and surface meteorology
Varia
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII
ble
Insol
ation
,
0.11 0.54 1.35 2.71 4.24 5.33 5.24 3.83 2.42 1.05 0.26 0.0
kWh/
m²/d
ay

10. Drinking water reservoirs in Nuuk – Greenland(above, two out of three lakes, see below.
Present water supply
model for Nuuk and
two suburbs, Nussuaq
and Qinngorput.
Th water is based upon
freshwater coming
from the mountains
running into the first
lake to the next using
gravity.
P is yearly production.
VS is summer
VVS is winter
(production capacity)

11. Fishing Industry (www.nanoq.gl)
“The majority of Greenland‘s fishing industry is managed by Royal Greenland A/S, which is owned by the
Home Rule Government. The main product is peeled prawns, which are sold on the northern European
market. The company‘s trawlers mainly produce unpeeled, cooked or raw, frozen prawns. The company is the
world‘s largest retailer of cold-water prawns. A total of almost 6,500 people are employed in fishing and the
fishing industry.”
According to above , and the fact that Nuuk is the home base for Royal Greenland and several other main
exporting fishing companies, Nuuk is very dependant on the waters.
Waterpower is the main energy source in Nuuk, covering almost 100% of the city power supply.
Also the greenlandic culture itself is about sailing(kayaking) and hunting by sea. Since the only two ways to
get to Greenland , and Nuuk, is by sea or plane. The fiords and waters is crucial for the city and the people
living here.

12. Sermitsiaq the famous mountain , the landmark of Nuuk and Sermersooq municipality,
and also the name of greenlands largest newspaper