Weather
The Russian town of Oymyakon hit a ridiculous 88 degrees below zero on Tuesday, which according to space.com is even colder than the average temperature on Mars!
Already considered the world’s coldest permanently inhabited town, the 500 locals are used to temperatures plunging well below 0 with children regularly going to school in temperature of -40. It’s named after the nearby Oymyakon River which translated means “unfrozen patch of water; place where fish spend the winter.”
Amazingly, 88 below isn’t even the record low temperature for this remote, diamond-rich Russian region of Yakutia, a part of Siberia, although this particular cold snap has turned deadly. Over the weekend, two men froze to death when they tried to walk to a nearby farm after their car broke down. Two other men in the group, who were wearing warmer clothing, survived.
The all-time record for the coldest temperature recorded for a permanently inhabited settlement anywhere in the world is held by Oymyakon at a brisk 89.9 degrees below and unofficial temperatures as cold as minus 108 degrees have also been measured.
As for the all-time world record cold temperature, Vostok research station on Antarctica had an official reading of 128.6 below zero in 1983.
