The coldest spots on Earth are incredibly harsh for people, but brave and well-prepared explorers and scientists have found ways to survive there.
In most of these places, regular thermometers won’t work. If your skin is exposed, it would freeze quickly, and the moisture in your breath would turn into ice crystals when you breathe out. To put it simply, you’ll need a warm coat.
Many of these locations are also research stations where important and groundbreaking studies have been done. Scientists have researched climate, rocks, stars, and even extreme medical science in these tough conditions. So, make yourself a hot cocoa, and let’s explore the coldest places on our planet.
Snag, Yukon, Canada
Temperature: -62.7°C
Snag is a village in Canada that’s not used anymore. A long time ago, during an unusual winter in the 1940s, it got incredibly cold there. The cold was so intense that when people breathed out, their breath turned into ice dust and fell to the ground. Even weirder sounds could be heard from very far away because the super cold air made them travel much farther than usual.
North Ice, Greenland
Temperature: -66.1°C
A research station was started in 1952 by an expedition from Britain in Greenland. They first got there using dog sleds, and later, military planes dropped off supplies and tools for explorers and scientists. In 1954, they recorded the coldest temperature ever measured in the northern part of the world. During the expedition, they did a lot of research on things like rocks, earthquakes, the human body, and glaciers.
Oymyakon, Russia
Temperature: -67.8°C
This place in rural Russia is sometimes called the coldest town, where people live all the time. It has fewer than 1,000 residents and is located between two valleys, which makes it even colder because the valleys trap the freezing winds. It’s so cold in the winter that the schools only close when the temperature drops below -55°C.
Klinck Research Station, Greenland
Temperature: -69.4°C
Greenland is the world’s biggest island, but not many people live there because a huge ice sheet covers most of the land. Scientists have set up weather stations in this tough environment. They use snowmobiles to carry their instruments. It’s not easy, but it’s important for climate science. These stations have measured some of the most extreme weather in the northern hemisphere.
One of these stations, the Klinck Research Station, is near the highest part of the ice sheet. It faces the harshest weather with very cold and dry conditions.
Verkhoyansk, Russia
Temperature: -69.8°C
This town in Russia has about 1,000 people and is inside the Arctic Circle. It’s known as one of the coldest places in the northern hemisphere. The extreme cold here is because of something called the Siberian High, which is a big area of very cold air. Sometimes, it gets even colder as you go higher up.
But here’s something surprising: Verkhoyansk can get really hot in the summer, with temperatures above 30°C. It has some of the biggest changes in temperature between winter and summer anywhere on Earth.
Denali, Alaska
Temperature: -73.8°C
The tallest mountain in North America is really tall, more than 6,000 meters above sea level. It’s a great place for climbers, but you better have warm clothes. There’s a weather station near the top, and in 2003, it recorded the coldest temperature ever in the United States: a freezing -73.8°C. People used to call it Mount McKinley, but now it’s officially named Denali, which is what the Koyukon people who live there call it.
Dome Argus, Antarctic Plateau
Temperature: -82.5°C
How cold can it get? Scientists want to know if it could get even colder at this place. It’s near the current record-holder Dome Fuji. While they haven’t measured the coldest temperature here yet, researchers think it might be one of the coldest places on Earth.
In 2018, a team from the University of Colorado at Boulder used special technology to find places in eastern Antarctica where temperatures might drop below -90°C. These spots are in low areas near the highest part of the ice, at elevations between 3,800 to 4,050 meters, and Dome Argus is one of the top contenders.
Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, Antarctica
Temperature: -82.8°C
The folks at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station experience just one sunrise and one sunset each year. So, it’s no surprise that it’s one of the coldest places ever. This station is way up on the Antarctic plateau, nearly 3,000 meters above sea level. Even in summer, the temperature doesn’t usually go above -12°C.
People have been living here all the time since the United States built the first base in 1956. Nowadays, about 150 people live here on average, but fewer in the winter. Scientists at the station work on all sorts of things, like studying tiny particles called neutrinos, medical research, and looking at the very early universe using the South Pole Telescope.
Vostok Research Station, Antarctica
Temperature: -89.2°C
Strangely enough, one of the coldest places on Earth is also one of the sunniest. During December, the Vostok Research Station in Antarctica gets more than 22 hours of sunlight each day. On the flip side, there’s absolutely no sunlight during the polar night, and Vostok has the coldest average temperature of any weather station on the planet.
The Soviet Union started this station in 1957, and it’s a hub for fascinating research. Scientists here do all sorts of things, like studying ice cores and magentronomy. They’ve even reached Lake Vostok, a massive lake hidden under the ice. There, they found a whole ecosystem of tiny life forms that had been cut off from the rest of the world.
Dome Fuji, Antarctic
Temperature: -93.2°C
In 2010, a satellite called Landsat 8 looked at a tall ridge on the East Antarctic ice sheet and confirmed what scientists already knew about the local weather: it’s very, very cold.
It measured a temperature of -92.3°C, making this dry, cold desert the coldest place on Earth, even colder than the Vostok station (mentioned earlier), which held the record since 1983.
While temperatures here rarely go above -30°C, humans have managed to live and work in the region. They set up the Dome Fuji Station nearby in 1995, and by drilling into the ice, scientists have learned about the climate going back 720,000 years. If you plan to visit, make sure to bring a good thermos and check out NASA’s video about the place before you go.
