You’re probably wondering what the coldest places on earth are, maybe you’re thinking about visiting, or you just want to make a note on, what your reasons are. This article has all the information you need about the coldest place on earth.
Coldest Place on Earth
Millions of exceptionally resilient people live in some of the world’s most freezing areas, from cities north of the Arctic Circle to the brutal Poles of the Cold.
Temperatures often drop below zero degrees Fahrenheit in inhabited areas of Russia, Scandinavia, and North America. Some have even experienced minus 80, 90, or 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Living in these areas may entail traveling by snowmobile, having little supplies, and experiencing complete darkness for 24 hours at a time.
Even in Antarctica’s Vostok Station, where the lowest temperature at ground level is (minus 128.5), cold-weather settlements flourish despite the challenges. Below is the list of the coldest places on earth:
1. Dome Fuji, Antarctica
The Landsat 8 satellite, which focused its instruments on a prominent ridge on the East Antarctic ice sheet in 2010, proved what scientists had predicted about the local climate: it was cold.
This arid, frigid desert was called the coldest place on Earth, with a temperature of -92.3°C, breaking the previous record of the Vostok station, which had stood since 1983.
Although temperatures rarely exceed -30°C, humanity has somehow lived and worked in the area.
The adjacent Dome Fuji Station opened in 1995, and ice cores drilled in the area provide a view into the region’s 720,000-year palaeoclimatic history. Do you want to go? Bring a thermos.
2. Vostok Station, Antarctica
During the summer months, roughly 25 to 30 people live at Vostok Station. It is located nearly 800 miles from the South Pole in the dead middle of the East Antarctic Plateau.
Only a handful of brave souls will brave the winter months.
While the coldest temperature ever recorded at Vostok Station, minus 128.6, appears to be unfathomable, it might grow colder.
Temperatures on the ice sheet can reach minus 144 degrees Fahrenheit, according to 2018 research.
How? Extremely dry circumstances squeeze the water vapor out of the atmosphere, allowing any heat released by the ice sheet to escape all the way to space.
This is indeed one of the oldest cities in the world today.
3. Verkhoyansk, Russia
In Verkhoyansk, Russia, deep in the Siberian forest, 1,311 people dwell according to the 2010 census. This settlement, which began as a fort in 1638, grew into a regional center for cattle raising and tin mining.
Between the 1860s and the early twentieth century, Verkhoyansk, located 1,500 miles south of the North Pole, was used to host political exiles.
The average temperature in Verkhoyansk’s coldest month, January, is minus 44 degrees, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
From October to April, the average monthly temperature remains below freezing. While the town’s official all-time low is minus 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
People experienced significantly colder temperatures in February 1892, down to minus 93.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
4. Oymyakon, Russia
Oymyakon, located 390 miles away in northeast Russia, is the coldest climate with Verkhoyansk. On February 6, 1933, Oymyakon experienced the lowest temperature ever, minus 90 degrees.
The Guinness World Record for the lowest temperature in an inhabited settlement in the Northern Hemisphere. The two communities officially shared it.
According to the 2010 census, Oymyakon is home to 462 people. The settlement is called after a nearby hot spring, which some locals take advantage of during the winter.
But only after breaking through the heavy layer of snow and ice that surrounds the warm water. The tourism board of Oymyakon uses the cold temperatures to its advantage.
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5. Yakutsk, Russia
Yakutsk is a Russian port city where the average temperature falls below the freezing point in October and doesn’t rise until May. The average high temperature in January is — 28.4 degrees.
The lowest temperature ever recorded in Yakutsk was minus 83.9 degrees on February 5, 1891.
They projected Yakutsk to have a population of over 300,000 people. Many people make a living in the region’s mining industry.
When a succession of pipelines broke into two neighboring villages in 2008, it forced inhabitants to cluster together for warmth around makeshift wood stoves.
6. Astana, Kazakhstan
Astana is a contemporary metropolis with futuristic buildings, gleaming mosques, and a plethora of retail and entertainment options.
While the summers are pleasant, the winters in Astana are long, dry, and bitterly cold. Although the monthly average for January is 6.4 F/ -14.2 C, extreme lows of -61 F/ -51.5 C have been recorded.
The city’s river is frozen over from mid-November to early April, making it one of the world’s oldest cities.
7. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Mongolia’s capital city is known as one of the world’s coldest. Ulaanbaatar, on a high plateau of 1,300 meters above sea level, is home to about half of Mongolia’s three million people.
Temperatures rarely rise above -16°C in January. Visitors may warm up inside the city’s temples and museums, such as the International Intellectual Museum, which specializes in puzzles, logic, riddles, and games.
8. Snag, Canada
Snag, a Yukon Territory town holds the record of being the coldest city in Canada. It recorded a temperature of — 81 degrees Fahrenheit on February 3, 1947. This is the coldest temperature ever recorded in continental North America.
The average temperature in January is minus 13.9 degrees, and the average temperature in July is 57.4 degrees.
9. Yellowknife, Canada
250 miles south of the Arctic Circle is the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories.
Yellowknife is the coldest year-round, has the coldest winter, the most intense wind chill, and the longest snow cover season of the 100 Canadian communities surveyed by Environment Canada.
The lowest temperature ever recorded was -60 F/ -51 C, but it also was the sunniest July in Canada.
Yellowknife, rich in gold-rush history, is a destination for explorers, with activities ranging from midnight sun trekking to dog-sledding. Also snowmobiling and witnessing the northern lights.
10. Barrow, United States
Barrow is the northernmost city in the United States, above the Arctic Circle in Alaska. It has the coldest average temperature of any Alaskan city.
Which is aggravated by frequent cloud cover and high winds of up to 60 mph.
The sun is below the horizon for 65 days of the year, with just 120 days of the year experiencing high temperatures above freezing.
Despite record low temperatures of -56 F/ -49 C, there are many reasons to visit Barrow.
The rich Iupiat culture, the grandeur of the surrounding tundra, and the chance to see the northern lights in this freezing city are just a few of them.
11. Utqiagvik, Alaska
Utqiavik, formerly known as Barrow, is the United States’ northernmost cit. It is situated 1,300 miles south of the North Pole and 320 miles north of the Arctic Circle.
The population of 4,467 people lives atop permafrost, which can be up to 1,300 feet deep in some locations.
The sunsets in late November and does not rise again until late January. The average temperature doesn’t rise above freezing until June, and even then, it’s cold. June’s average temperature is only 36 degrees.
Utqiavik is Alaska’s North Slope’s economic heartland, and many of its citizens work in the petroleum business. The city is only accessible by air or water.
12 Klinck Research Station, Greenland
Greenland, the world’s largest island, is rarely populated because of a massive ice sheet that covers much of its surface.
Intrepid scientists traverse the tundra on snowmobiles with their instruments in the toe to set up meteorological stations in this difficult region.
It was, however, well worth it. These stations have documented some of the most extreme circumstances in the northern hemisphere, besides significant climate science.
The Klinck Research Station is near the ice sheet’s highest point and also exposed to the harshest aspects of the dry, cold continental climate.
13. International Falls, Minnesota
International Falls, Minnesota, is one of the coldest cities in the contiguous United States, although being just half as cold as Oymyakon or Verkhoyansk.
It’s on the banks of the Rainy River, just on the Canadian border. Winters at International Falls are lengthy and frigid, with typical January lows of minus seven degrees.
According to U.S. Climate Data, the area averages roughly 71 inches of annual snowfall, and over 60 nights a year exceed zero degrees.
International Falls, which has a population of 5,811 people, has long fought Fraser, Colorado, and Big Piney, Wyoming, for the coveted title of “Icebox of the Nation.
Learn More About How Cold is the South Pole
Having comprehensive information about where are you traveling to is very important. Especially when it is the weather condition of where you are traveling to, this would enable you to be more prepared.
Places like Antarctica and Russia have frosty weather. Hence, it is important that you go in the right clothes and other materials while traveling. Whatever your purpose is for this information is, we hope it was useful.
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