FREEZING PLACES THAT WILL GIVE YOU THE CHILLS
▶ After the temperature fell to minus 62.7°C in Russia, Hayley Skirka lists the coldest destinations on Earth
Temperatures in one of the world’s coldest cities plunged to minus 62.7°C this month. Residents of Yakutsk, in eastern Siberia, have been piling on the layers to beat the freeze.
Anastasia Gruzdeva ventured outside wearing two scarves, two pairs of gloves and several hats and hoods.
“You can’t fight it. You either adjust and dress accordingly or you suffer,” she told Reuters.
Yakutsk was built on permafrost about 450km south of the Arctic Circle and the city records its lowest annual temperatures in January. This year it has faced a particularly long cold snap.
From the wilderness of Antarctica to Yukon in Canada, here are some of the coldest places on Earth.
East Antarctic Plateau
In August 2010, a temperature of minus 94°C was recorded in the eastern region of the world’s coldest continent.
It beat the previous record for the region – minus 89.2°C – that was reported in 1983.
However, the drop to a teeth-chattering minus 94°C was captured using remote sensors on satellites, rather than with thermometers on the ground.
That means that many experts do not consider it to be a contender for the official world record.
Vostok Station, Antarctica
Many people regard the remote research station as the coldest place on the planet. Vostok Station in Antarctica is where researchers recorded a temperature of minus 89.2°C 40 years ago.
The station was also built in one of the sunniest spots areas in the world.
Every December, the region gets more than 22 hours of sunlight a day.
But it’s a very different story in the summer, when the polar night means there is no daylight at all. The Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station is one of three research stations operated under the US Antarctic Programme and was the site of the project’s lowest recorded temperature.
The station is on the high plateau of Antarctica’s ice sheet, about 2,835 metres above sea level. It is one of the world’s coldest places, with minus 82.8°C the lowest temperature reported there in 1982.
The research centre is drift- ing with the ice sheet, moving about 10 metres every year.
Denali, Alaska, US
Denali is North America’s tallest mountain and one of the world’s coldest destinations, although its inclusion on this list could spark debate.
The third tallest of the Seven Summits – the biggest mountains on each of the continents – Denali, which was once called Mount McKinley, is known for its brutal winters,
when temperatures are believed to have dropped as low as minus 73°C.
The data was derived from a self-recording thermometer left on the slopes in 1913 at an elevation of about 4,600 metres. While the device was tested by US weather authorities and found to be giving accurate readings, there are unanswered questions, with the exact date it recorded the temperature of minus 73°C still unknown. Despite its bitterly cold weather, Denali remains popular among hardy adventure-seeking tourists, who flock to its slopes to practise Nordic skiing and mountaineering.
Klinck station, Greenland
The coldest temperature ever recorded in the Northern Hemisphere can be traced to Klinck station on Greenland’s ice sheet.
The World Meteorological Organisation has reported a biting temperature of minus 69.6°C, recorded at the station in December 1991. The data was captured by an automatic weather station and was only introduced to the public domain about 30 years later.
The remote site can only be reached using a snowmobile, which means researchers have to be careful transporting the sensitive temperature-recording equipment through rough snow-covered terrain.
Oymyakon, Siberia, Russia
The hamlet of Oymayakon, in the Republic of Sakha in eastern Siberia, is one of the world’s coldest inhabited places. With perpetual belowzero temperatures, the village experienced its coldest spell in 1933, when meteorologists recorded a temperature of minus 67.7°C.
A monument in the town square commemorates a temperature of minus 71.2°C from January 1924, but that reading has not yet been independently verified.
Despite its year-round biting temperatures, a few hundred people call the destination home and survive on a diet largely consisting of fish and reindeer meat.
It’s also where the world’s coldest marathon took place last year, with runners battling temperatures well below zero across a 42km course.
North Ice, Greenland
The now abandoned North Ice research station in Greenland was previously thought to be the coldest destination in the Northern Hemisphere, with a temperature of minus 66.1°C recorded in January 1954.
Since scientists discovered new data captured by an automatic weather station at Klinck in 1991, the site is no longer the record holder for the region. But it remains one of the world’s coldest places. The station was abandoned 69 years ago.
In August 2010, a temperature of minus 94°C was recorded in the eastern region of the world’s coldest continent
Yakutsk, Siberia, Russia
Yakutsk made headlines this month as temperatures in the city sank to minus 62.7°C and residents wrapped up to brave the cold.
Despite the chill, it’s not the coldest temperature recorded in the Russian city.
In 1891, it experienced a freezing minus 64.4°C. The city takes its role as one of the world’s coldest places seriously and is home to the only museum dedicated to permafrost.
Snag, Yukon Territory, Canada
The coldest place in Canada, when you calculate average yearly temperatures, is Eureka in the northern territory of Nunavut. But Snag on the Alaska-Yukon border in western Canada is where authorities recorded the country’s coldest temperature.
Nestled about 25km from Beaver Creek, Canada’s westernmost community, Snag faced a chill-inducing figure of minus 63.0°C in 1947.
The village was once the site of an emergency landing strip used by British aircraft during Second World War.
Snag was home to about 10 First Nation locals and 20 researchers who braved its freezing conditions.
Prospect Creek, Alaska, US
Uninhabited since the early 1990s, Prospect Creek in Alaska is one of the world’s coldest destinations.
Founded below the Arctic Circle, the tiny ghost town is where one of the lowest temperatures in the US was recorded – minus 62.1°C, documented by a weather observer in January 1971.
With its subarctic climate, the town is known for consistently having the coldest winters in the US.
Prospect Creek holds the record for the lowest non-contested temperature reported in the continental US.