Yakutsk on the Lena River in Russia’s far east is known as the coldest city in the world. In January, usually the coldest month of the year, temperatures regularly drop below minus 40 degrees Celsius. On Thursday, the thermometer even showed minus 62.7 degrees – the lowest value in two decades.
According to meteorologists, it was the coldest day in Russia in twenty years. The absolute minus record in Yakutsk, which is built on permanently frozen permafrost, was set in 1891 with minus 64.4 degrees Celsius.
Schools closed due to freezing cold
Due to the extreme temperatures that have been going on for a while, the students in the city of 200,000 have to study temporarily at home for about a week. Schools remained closed, but there was distance learning, authorities said last Thursday.
Only in the city of Oymyakon, about 1,700 kilometers to the east, where the temperature last fell below 60 degrees Celsius at the end of last year, is it icy than in Yakutsk. On December 11, 2022, the thermometer showed minus 61 degrees, the lowest reading in more than a decade (krone.at reported).
Small town is the cold pole of Asia
Oymyakon, with a population of nearly 500, is considered the cold pole of Asia alongside Verkhonyansk. Funny detail: the name of the small town in the east of the Republic of Yakutia (also known as Sakha, nut) means something like “hot spring” in the Yakut language.
Known as the coldest permanently inhabited place on Earth, the municipality of Oymyakon is located in eastern Yakutia at an elevation of 741 meters. The lowest temperature ever recorded – minus 67.7 degrees Celsius – was reportedly recorded in February 1933.
Source: Krone
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