Whapmagoostui (, "place of the beluga") is the northernmost Cree village in Quebec, Canada, located at the mouth of the Great Whale River () on the coast of Hudson Bay in Nunavik. About 906 Cree with about 650 Inuit, living in the neighbouring village of Kuujjuarapik. The community is accessible only by air (Kuujjuarapik Airport) and, in late summer, by boat. Whapmagoostui is about north of the nearest Cree village, Chisasibi.
Although the permanent cohabitation of Inuit and Cree at the mouth of the Great Whale River goes back only 1950, the two nations were rubbing shoulders in the area for a very long time, with the Inuit close to the coast and the Cree more in the interior.
Names
The village was settles on territory originally named Fort Richmond. The settlement's first official name was Poste-de-la-Baleine.
The name "Whapmagoostui" () is Cree for "place of the beluga".
Geography
The territory of the Cree reserved land of Whapmagoostui must be distinguished from the territory of the homonymous Cree village municipality. The reserved land is located entirely on the north bank of the Great Whale River for a distance of approximately . On the other hand, it does not have any coastline on James Bay, separated from it by the northern village (VN) of Kuujjuarapik and the Inuit reserve land of Kuujjuarapik.
To the north and south of the Cree reserved land is the unorganized territory of Baie-d'Hudson, while the Cree village municipality of Whapmagoostui is to the southwest, east and southeast of the Cree reserved land.
The Cree reserved land includes the urbanized core of Whapmagoostui, which is also bordering that of Kuujjuarapik, like two neighbouring neighbourhoods of the same city.
Climate
Predictably, given its northern latitude, Whapmagoostui has a subarctic climate (Dfc) under the Köppen climate classification, but strongly modified by its location on the southeastern (predominantly windward) shore of Hudson Bay, particularly from May/June through November, the primary season when Hudson Bay's surface is unfrozen, i.e. open water. Winters are long and cold; summers are cool, strongly influenced by the chilly open waters of Hudson Bay, with August (the warmest month, on average) mustering an average monthly high temperature of only . Freezing conditions () have occurred every month of the year, although the moderating effect of Hudson Bay may hold off the first fall freeze as late as the second week of October in an occasional year, as in 2015. Year-round, climatic conditions are influenced strongly by Hudson Bay's freeze-thaw cycle. January is the coldest month on average; August, the warmest.
The average annual precipitation cycle demonstrates a minimum from mid-winter (January) to mid-spring (May), with sharply rising average monthly precipitation amounts beginning in June, reaching a peak in September, but with only slowly falling average monthly precipitation amounts from September to November. As such, compared to most Northern Hemisphere sub-Arctic climates (which usually have strong precipitation maximums between June and August, usually July), Whapmagoostui demonstrates a strong tendency favouring a relatively drier spring and relatively wetter autumn. This pattern is a direct consequence of Whapmagoostui's location on the lee shore of Hudson Bay. Similar to a pattern evident in heavily "lake-influenced" areas around the U.S. Great Lakes (i.e. Holland and Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan), in spring and early summer, water temperatures are cooler than those of surrounding land areas, encouraging low clouds and fog, but also stable conditions and less precipitation. In fall and early winter, the pattern is reversed: water temperatures are warmer than those of surrounding land areas, encouraging cumulus cloud formation and unstable conditions, meaning low-pressure systems passing from cooler land to warmer water often intensify.