Life
10 Places On Earth That Are Colder Than The Northeast This Weekend
Cold enough for you? Hardly. You may think you’re in misery with your 10-degree weather, but people in other parts of the globe are rolling their eyes at us as we freak out about weather that they'd consider delightfully temperate. You want cold? We’ll show you cold.
Before you dramatically scream “Why!” into your heated blanket, you may want to think about how lucky you are. Yes, you are very lucky compared to those places on earth for which 10 degree temps would indicate some sort of a heat wave. Did you know that the coldest temperature ever recorded was a deliriously freezing minus 128.6 degrees Fahrenheit in Vostok, Antarctica? Granted, no one in their right mind lives there, but there are still other places in the world where their residents would kill to have the weather we’re having right now.
Image: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Oymyakon, Russia
This tiny village with 500 residents doesn’t wuss-out when it comes to their extreme weather: it’s only after the temperature dips below -50 °F that the schools close. These guys also live on a diet of horse and reindeer meat. Not exactly a place you’d want to call home.
Image: Alexander Aksakov/Getty Images
Mount McKinley, Alaska
Mount McKinley is not just the highest peak in all of North America, but it’s also the coldest mountain on the planet, with no one batting an eye at the usual -40 °F.
Image: WikiCommons
Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station
Why does Santa live in the North Pole? Because it’s balmy compared to the South Pole! It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that the southernmost point on the planet has seen temperatures that flirt with -100 °F.
Image: bluesun/Fotolia
Verkhoyansk, Russia
Remember the ice castle in Dr. Zhivago? That’s pretty much what you can expect in this Russian town where the average January temperature is -50 °F.
Image: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
Rogers Pass, Montana
The good ol’ continental USA also has some places you probably want to avoid like a plague. Not far behind Alaska is Rogers Pass which, at a ridiculous 5,610 feet above sea level, has seen a record cold of -70 °F. There’s a real-time web camera that allows cold weather voyeurs to check it all out from a warm place far, far away.
Image: Robert/Fotolia
North Ice, Greenland
The name Greenland is so damn deceiving! North Ice, the research station for the British North Greenland Expedition, is the 5th coldest place in the world. Basically, people willingly wanted to be in a place where the coldest temperatures have been known to get as low as -86 °F. People are strange. (Cue The Doors song.)
Image: zoyas2222/Fotolia
Stanley, Idaho
Perhaps not as terrifying as Montana, but do you really want to hang out in weather that’s seen -52 °F, and holds the record for the most cold days in row? You do? Great. Send me a postcard.
Image: robsonphoto/Fotolia
Hell, Norway
With average winter temperatures hanging around the -13 °F mark, this Scandinavian city’s name says it all. Seriously. Who wants to live in a place called Hell? Apparently the 1400 inhabitants do.
Image: Wikipedia
Snag, Yukon Territory
Although all of the Yukon Territory is synonymous with “Brrr!” it’s the village of Snag that takes the cake with temperatures having reached -81 °F. But hey, all that ice is so pretty to look at!
Image: dima/Fotolia
Yakutsk, Russia
Siberia really is the worst. But more than 200,000 people call this city their home despite the average -34 °F in January.
Image: Alexander Aksakov/Getty Images
