Thermometer in world’s coldest village breaks as temperatures plunge to -62C

Image credit: Siberian Times

Claims that everywhere apart from the Eastern USA was warmer than ‘normal’ this winter turn out to be wide of the mark, in parts of Siberia at least.

The thermometer in a remote Siberian village known as the coldest inhabited place on earth has broken as temperatures plunged to near-record depths, reports the Daily Telegraph.

The public device, which was installed in Oymyakon as a tourist attraction, recorded -62C, before malfunctioning this week.

Meanwhile the Siberian Times reports that some locals had readings as low as -67C – in touching distance of the record -67.7C, which was logged in the village in February 1933.

That temperature was the lowest ever recorded outside the Antarctic and cemented the village, in the Yakutia region, the coldest permanently-inhabited place on earth.

Yet it is still some way off the coldest temperature ever recorded on the planet, which was -94.7C captured by a NASA satellite in east Antarctica in 2013.

Oymyakon has 50 permanent residents and its name means “non-freezing water” due to a nearby thermal spring.

The settlement originally developed as a stopover for reindeer herders who came to water their animals at the spring.

The village’s hardy inhabitants survive the winters, which drop to an average of -50C in January and February, largely by burning wood and coal for warmth.

The village sits 750 meters above sea level and the length of its days varies from three hours in December to 21 hours in summer.

Continued here.