In these places, despite the average annual minus temperature and record frosts in winter, ARVI is very rare. Viruses and bacteria do not get along here, but people feel good. The list of the top 10 coldest cities in the world included simultaneously 5 Russian cities, excluding Fr. Svalbard, as well as the domestic research station in Antarctica. What confirms - Russia is the coldest country on the planet.
10. Vostok Station - the city of polar explorers and penguins
Absolute maximum: -14С in January, minimum: -90С in July.
Intracontinental Arctic station, existing since 1957. The place is a small town consisting of several complexes, including residential and research modules, as well as technological buildings.
Arriving here, a person begins to die, everything contributes to this: temperature to -90C, low oxygen concentration, continuous snowy whiteness causes blindness. It is impossible to make sudden movements, to experience prolonged physical activity - all this can lead to pulmonary edema, death, guaranteed to loss of consciousness. When the Arctic winter comes, the temperature drops below -80 ° C, gasoline thickens under such conditions, diesel fuel crystallizes and turns into a paste, human skin dies in a matter of minutes.
9. Oymyakon - the coldest place on the planet
Absolute minimum: -78С, maximum: + 30С.
A small village located in Yakutia is considered one of the "poles of the cold" of the planet. This place is recognized as the most severe on Earth, in which a permanent population lives. In total, about 500 people took root in Oymyakon. The sharply continental climate is characterized by hot summers and extremely cold winters, which is provided by the remoteness from the oceans heating the air. Oymyakon is also notable for the fact that the difference in maximum temperatures, - and +, is more than a hundred degrees. Despite its administrative status as a village, the place is included in the world ratings of the coldest cities in the world. One store, a school, a boiler room, and a gas station operate throughout Oymyakon. People survive through livestock farming.
8. Verkhoyansk - the northernmost city of Yakutia
Absolute minimum: -68С, maximum: + 38С.
Verkhoyansk is recognized as another “cold pole” and is constantly competing with Oymyakon for this title, sometimes the competition comes to an exchange of accusations and insults. In summer, arid heat can change dramatically to zero or negative temperature. Winter is windy and very long.
There are no asphalt pavements; they simply cannot withstand the temperature difference. The population is 1200 people. People are engaged in reindeer husbandry, cattle breeding, there is forestry, there is a tourist orientation in the local economy. The city has two schools, a hotel, a local history museum, a weather station, and shops. The younger generation is engaged in fishing and the extraction of mammoth bone and tusks.
7. Yakutsk - the coldest major city on Earth
Absolute minimum: -65, maximum: + 38C.
The capital of the Republic of Sakha is located at the foot of the Lena River. Yakutsk is the only major city in the ranking of the coldest cities in the world where you can pay by credit card, go to a SPA, a restaurant with Japanese, Chinese, European, and any cuisine. The population is 300 thousand people. About fifty schools, several higher educational institutions, theaters, opera, circus, uncountable number of museums work here, small and medium industry is well developed.
It is also the only settlement in the ranking to which asphalt is laid. In summer and spring, when the ice melts, it floods the roads, solid channels like the Venetian ones form. Up to 30% of the world's diamond reserves are concentrated in these parts, almost half of the gold of the Russian Federation is mined. In winter, it is very difficult to bring a car in Yakutsk; you have to heat the fuel line with a flame or a soldering iron. Every local at least once in his life confused morning with evening and vice versa.
6. Norilsk is the northernmost city on the planet with a population of more than 150 thousand people.
Absolute minimum: -53С, maximum: + 32С.
Industrial city, part of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. It is recognized as the northernmost city on the planet, in which the resident population exceeds 150 thousand people. Norilsk is included in the rating of the most polluted settlements of the Earth, which is associated with the developed metallurgical industry. A state higher education institution has been opened in Norilsk, and an art gallery is operating.
Guests and locals are constantly faced with a number of problems: due to the low temperatures in winter, cars are usually stored in heated garages or not jammed for a long time, the height of snowdrifts can reach up to the 3rd floor, wind power can move cars and carry people away.
5. Longyearbyen - the tourist capital of the island of Barentsburg
Absolute minimum: -43С, maximum: + 21С.
This place is as far from the equator as the Vostok station. Here is the world's northernmost airport with regular flights - Svalbard. Longyearbyen is the administrative unit of Norway, but visa restrictions do not apply here - at the airport they mark "Departed from Norway". You can get by air or by sea. Longyearbyen is the northernmost settlement with a population of more than a thousand people. The city can be safely called one of the coldest in the world, but it is more than suitable for a comfortable existence, compared with Verkhoyansk, for example.
What is noteworthy: it is forbidden to be born and die here - there are no maternity hospitals and cemeteries. The corpses, which are most often the result of a person meeting a bear, are transported to the mainland. In the city, as on the entire island of Svalbard, two modes of transport prevail - a helicopter, a snowmobile. The main occupations of local people are coal mining in mines, dog sledding, hiding, and research. The island has the largest male seed repository on the planet, which should save humanity in the event of a global catastrophe.
4. Barrow - the northernmost city of the United States
Absolute minimum: -47С, maximum: + 26С.
Oil workers live here. The population of the city is 4.5 thousand people. In the summer, it is impossible to accurately predict what will have to get to work tomorrow - on a snowmobile or car. Snow and frost can come to the region at any time and replace warm rare days.
Barrow is an atypical American town; here you can find dressed-up skins everywhere, large bones of marine animals on the roads. There is no asphalt. But, there is also a piece of civilization: a football field, an airfield, clothing and food stores. The city is buried in the polar spleen and takes fourth place among the coldest cities on the planet.
3. Murmansk - the largest city built beyond the Arctic Circle
Absolute minimum: -39С, maximum: + 33C.
Murmansk is the only hero city located beyond the Arctic Circle. The only place in the Arctic, where more than 300 thousand people live. The entire infrastructure and economy is built around the port, one of the largest in Russia. The city is heated by the warm Gulf Stream, which comes from the Atlantic Ocean.
Locals do not deny themselves anything, here are McDonalds, and Zara, and Bershka, and many other stores, including the largest Russian chain supermarkets. The hotel chain is developed. The roads are mostly paved.
2. Nuuk - the administrative center of Greenland
Absolute minimum: -32С, maximum: + 26С.
From Nuuk to the Arctic Circle - 240 kilometers, but a warm ocean current warms up the local air and soil. About 17 thousand people live here, who are engaged in fishing, construction, consulting, science. There are several higher educational institutions in the city. In order not to plunge into the depression associated with the climate, the houses are painted in different colors, gilding is often found on the streets, municipal transport is replete with bright signs. Something similar can be found in Copenhagen, which did not get into the rating of the coldest cities on Earth due to warm currents.
1. Ulan Bator - the coldest capital of the state on the planet
Absolute minimum: -42С, maximum: + 39С.
Ulaanbaatar is the first place in Central Asia from the list of the coldest cities on the planet. The local climate is sharply continental, which is explained by a very large distance from the ocean currents. The capital of Mongolia is located much south of all representatives of the rating, except for the Vostok station. More than 1.3 million people live here. The level of infrastructure is far ahead of the rest of Mongolia. Ulaanbaatar closes the ranking of the coldest cities on the planet.