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Topten Coldest Place On Earth
Topten Coldest Place On Earth
In most of the places listed below, ordinary thermometers won’t work. Your skin, if exposed, would
freeze within minutes and the droplets in your breath turn to crystals as you exhale. As your mum might
say, you’ll need a coat.
Many of these sites are also stations where important and groundbreaking research has taken place.
Climate research, geology, astronomy and extreme biomedicine have thrived in these inhospitable
conditions.
So pour yourself a warm cup of cocoa and discover the most bone-chilling places on the planet.
© Alamy
Temperature: -62.7°C
Lying in a bowl-shaped valley in Yukon, Canada, Snag is a now-abandoned village where a record low
temperature was recorded during an unusual winter in the 1940s.
The extreme cold caused locals to report their breath freezing mid-air as they exhaled and fell to the
ground as a white dust.
Stranger still, they found that sounds carried much further in the cold dense air, with voices being heard
several miles from their source.
9. North Ice, Greenland
© iStock
Temperature: -66.1°C
Established by the British North Greenland Expedition in 1952, this research station was originally
reached on dog sledges before military aircraft dropped supplies and instruments for a team of
explorers and scientists to use.
The temperature reading taken in 1954 was, at the time, the coldest ever recorded in the northern
hemisphere.
The expedition carried out broad research that included geology, seismology, physiology and glaciology.
8. Oymyakon, Russia
Temperature: -67.8°C
Sometimes referred to as the coldest permanently inhabited settlement on Earth, we’d love to hear
estate agents try to sell this corner of rural Russia. Home to less than 1,000 people, it’s situated between
two valleys, which trap cold winds between them, intensifying the conditions.
Frozen throughout the winter, apparently local schools only close when temperatures dip below -55°C.
7. Klinck research station, Greenland
Temperature: -69.4°C
Greenland, the largest island in the world, is sparsely populated, owing to a gigantic ice sheet that
covers much of its land.
Setting up weather stations in this inhospitable climate involves intrepid scientists traversing the terrain
on snowmobiles with their instruments in toe.
Worth it, though. As well as vital climate science, these stations have recorded some of the most
extreme conditions in the northern hemisphere.
The Klinck Research Station sits close to the highest point on the ice sheet, exposed to the worst of the
dry, cold continental climate.
Read more:
In pictures: Following the mission to discover how the climate crisis is changing the Arctic
6. Verkhoyansk, Russia
Temperature: -69.8°C
Its unique climate is created by an area of cold dense air called the Siberian High. The area is prone to
temperature inversions, pockets where temperatures actually rise with altitude.
Incredibly, Verkhoyansk regularly sees summer temperatures higher than 30°C; the town is host to some
of the greatest temperature fluctuations between winter and summer anywhere on Earth. And we think
the UK is changeable.
5. Denali, Alaska
Temperature: -73.8°C
The highest mountain peak in North America is a spectacular, imposing sight, towering more than
6,000m above sea level. It’s also a climber’s paradise, but you’ll need an exceptional base layer if you’re
thinking about an ascent.
A weather station placed close to the summit recorded the coldest temperature on record in the United
States in 2003: a frosty -73.8°C.
Once known as Mount McKinley, the US government reverted its official name to Denali – the name
used by the Koyukon people, who inhabit the area around the mountain.
Dome Argus
© CHINARE
Temperature: -82.5°C
When: July 2005
How low can we go? Scientists believe we might find out at this site. Situated close to the current
record-holder Dome Fuji, a throne-stealing reading has not yet been made at Dome Argus but
researchers speculate that a nearby ridge is home to the coldest natural conditions on Earth.
In 2018, a team at the University of Colorado at Boulder used infrared mapping technology to identify
regions in eastern Antarctica where temperatures could plummet below -90°C.
These occur in shallow topographic depressions near the highest part of the ice sheet, at 3,800 to
4,050m elevation, and Dome Argus is one of the prime candidates.
Temperature: -82.8°C
The people who live and work at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station see only one sunrise and one
sunset a year, so perhaps it’s not surprising that it’s the site of some of the coldest temperatures ever
recorded.
Situated high on the Antarctic plateau, the station sits close to 3,000m above sea level. Even a summer’s
day here is unlikely to climb much higher than -12°C.
The station has been permanently occupied since the United States built the first base here in 1956 and
today the average population is around 150 (although this drops to a skeleton crew during the winter).
Scientists at the station work on everything from neutrino research to biomedical work to observations
of the cosmic microwave background with the South Pole Telescope.
2. Vostok Research Station, Antarctica
Temperature: -89.2°C
One of the coldest places on Earth is, weirdly, also one of the sunniest. In the month of December, the
Vostok Research Station in Antarctica enjoys more than 22 hours of sunlight hours.
Conversely, in the polar night, there are precisely zero hours of sunlight and Vostok records the lowest
mean annual temperature of any weather station on the planet.
The station was established by the Soviet Union in 1957 and is the site of fascinating research. As well as
ice cores and magentronomy, scientists have penetrated Lake Vostok, a huge subglacial lake hidden
beneath the ice. There, they discovered an ecosystem of microbes and multicellular organisms that was
previously cut off from the rest of the world.
© Atsuhiro Muto
Temperature: -93.2°C
In 2010, the Landsat 8 satellite pointed its instruments at a high ridge on the East Antarctic ice sheet and
confirmed what scientists had expected about the local climate: chilly. Extremely chilly.
Recording a reading of -92.3°C, this dry, cold desert was declared the coldest place on Earth, beating the
previous record at the Vostok station (see above), which had stood since 1983.
Although temperatures here rarely top -30°C, humans have, incredibly, found ways of living and working
in the region. The nearby Dome Fuji Station was established in 1995, and ice cores drilled in the region
give us a window into 720,000 years of paleo-climatic history. Interested in going? Pack a Thermos. And
check out NASA's video breakdown of the place before you leave.
Read more:
The real value of Greenland is in the ice, rather than the minerals
Ian Taylor
A former deputy editor at Science Focus, Ian once undertook a scientific ranking of the UK's best
rollercoasters on behalf of the magazine. He is now a freelance writer, which is frankly a lot less fun.
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