Eye on Ojmjakon - the coldest inhabited place on Earth

Su Campu

You want cold - go to Ojmjakon, Eastern Siberia - the coldest village on the planet. Regularly gets below -60°C in winter. At the moment it's a relatively balmy -47.5°C! :rolleyes: It's so cold that villagers leave fires burning underneath the truck engines at night time to stop the oil freezing!

See how the temperature rises with height to about 750hPa, then falls again, with the surface temperature the same as at 400hPa (~20,000ft!) :eek: That's a serious cap!






Max temp over the last 2 months

M.T. Cranium

Yes, there was a 1071 mb high over that region (north of the Sea of Okhotsk in eastern Siberia) about a week ago; much of that has drifted west into the Ob valley of western Siberia and is showing up on the charts as the possible westward-moving Russian high.

High pressure seldom totally breaks down over eastern Siberia in winter, what often happens is that a strong centre splits near this cold spot and part goes over the Bering region into Alaska and northwest Canada, the other part drifts west, and sometimes a cell sinks south into Mongolia and northern China. This happened a lot in their very cold winter two seasona ago.

This year with the even stronger than usual Siberian highs, a powerful easterly flow has hit Korea and east-central China giving them much additional snowfall, they have been digging out stranded trains in part of Manchuria recently.

The coldest places in North America under similar conditions run almost as cold, but not continuously (in most winters) like Ojmjakon. There's another town to the northwest of there called Verkhoyansk that also records some very low readings. Any place in a bit of a saucer-shaped bowl throughout east Siberia, inland Alaska and the Yukon can run these sorts of very low temperatures. The all-time low in Canada (and Alaska) is -63 C (-81 F) recorded at Snag, Yukon, near the Alaska border, in early February of 1947. That station has been discontinued and nowadays anything below -55 C is quite noteworthy. Mayo, Yukon is the most likely place for it (an odd name to choose for such a place).

There are places in Yellowstone Park that have similar topography and that can drop to -50 C or lower in extreme cases. In fact, -51 C has been recorded in northeastern Ontario and -46 C in upstate New York.

These temperatures don't vary much by time of day either, at the latitude of the Yukon, they may persist at all hours with a dense ice fog thrown in. At least it can't be windy below -45 C or so they say.

The coldest places in the Canadian arctic islands (Eureka on Ellesmere Island for example) can also drop to -50 C but don't do so for very long because there are usually weak lows rambling around up there during the winter to mix the air to at least -30 C and sometimes even almost to freezing. But in terms of severe wind chill, Baker Lake west of Hudson Bay can often report -40 C temperatures with strong winds and wind chills there drop to -70 C on some occasions.

Coldest I ever recorded in central Ontario was -41 C in January, 1976. It was cold enough that I could hear trees cracking in the frost.

opr

I posted about this in one of the threads during the cold spell but you may have missed it. Great documentary that is well worth a watch for cold lovers!

Encounters at the End of the World

It's about people who live in and around one of the coldest places on the planet McMurdo in Antarctica. It interviews a number of people including a few scientists that discuss certain things affecting our weather that they are studying in the region. The people living their make for some very interesting interviews and some of the footage from the area is truly amazing.

Opr

Su Campu

Here's the official forecast for the next week.

Look at Thursday - Max -58, Min -60°C :rolleyes:

http://meteoinfo.ru/forecasts5000/russia/republic-saha-yakutia/ojmjakon

200motels

Su Campu wrote: »

You want cold - go to Ojmjakon, Eastern Siberia - the coldest village on the planet. Regularly gets below -60°C in winter. At the moment it's a relatively balmy -47.5°C! :rolleyes: It's so cold that villagers leave fires burning underneath the truck engines at night time to stop the oil freezing!

See how the temperature rises with height to about 750hPa, then falls again, with the surface temperature the same as at 400hPa (~20,000ft!) :eek: That's a serious cap!






Max temp over the last 2 months

Their was a documentary on a good few years ago about that village, I think it was called Savage Earth, narrated by Ian Holm. I remember children could not go out in anything below -47 as the cold air would damage their lungs.

opr

200motels wrote: »

Their was a documentary on a good few years ago about that village, I think it was called Savage Earth, narrated by Ian Holm. I remember children could not go out in anything below -47 as the cold air would damage their lungs.

I did a bit of searching as I would like to have given it a look. Its an episode called ''The Winter's Tale'' of the 1996 PBS weather documentary series Savage Skies. If anyone comes across it can they PM me as I couldn't find it online ?

Opr

Su Campu

Getting toasty in Ojmjakon of late, 25°C a few days ago! But it's amazing how short the summer is there, and how quickly it arrives , a month ago max temperature were still below zero!

pauldry

We got a temperature of minus 17.7c in Ireland this Winter.

Bet they were jealous at how hot it was here.:)

nacho libre

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC3DUwseZn8&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNfb1X1awL8&feature=related

i don't think it would be all that bad to be stuck indoors in Yakutia

Pa ElGrande

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOOKhewUF7Y

Pangea

opr wrote: »

I posted about this in one of the threads during the cold spell but you may have missed it. Great documentary that is well worth a watch for cold lovers!

Encounters at the End of the World



Opr

I actually downloaded ahem .... I mean bought that film sometime ago;) I will have to watch it sometime after that good recommendation. Thanks.

Capt'n Midnight

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vostok_Station , this is also inhabited by Russians and has been at -89.2 C

Carbon Dioxide freezes out of the air at -78 C at sea level , so not sure if they would get Dry Ice there.

owenc

nacho libre wrote: »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC3DUwseZn8&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNfb1X1awL8&feature=related

i don't think it would be all that bad to be stuck indoors in Yakutia

that looks awful!

crushproof

Pa ElGrande wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOOKhewUF7Y

Keeping warm with his 20 year old wife, what a hero!:cool:

Su Campu

Time to cast an eye on Ojmjakon again, as it rapidly slides into deep winter. The first real snows have arrived this week, and today's high was a chilly -14.0°C.

Here is the annual climate




and here are the actual max temperatures over the past year.



Here is the Russian Met's official forecast

Takeshi_Kovacs

Was just looking at a few videos of the town, and what surprised me was that there was good few trees growing. I did not realise they could grow in such conditions.

thetonynator

Takeshi_Kovacs wrote: »

Was just looking at a few videos of the town, and what surprised me was that there was good few trees growing. I did not realise they could grow in such conditions.

I know a lot of trees and hedges round here died last winter in -16, cant imagine what would happen in -50!!!

Danno

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ojmjakon#Climate Record high temp for January is -16.6c

Supercell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZjfScL_wRE

Redsunset

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZjfScL_wRE

Here you go Supercell.

What a mad place to live,i love cold but thats taking it to a whole new level.
They say you can't feel much difference between extreme minus temps.
Just a thought

gothwalk

redsunset wrote: »

They say you can't feel much difference between extreme minus temps.

My experience is that anything past about -16C is getting hard to distinguish, alright - your exposed skin is numb, you've icicles on your moustache (assuming that you've facial hair, which I have) and beard, and that's about it. To be honest, once the skin numbs, you'd have a tough time knowing if the temperature had dropped further.

Possibly months of that non-stop would give you some experience in telling -16 from -40, of course.

snowstreams

Theres no record of the wind there on wikipedia. Id say a slight breeze at -40 would feel unbearable.
I just remember being up the wicklow mountains last winter during a blizzard at -5 and thinking it was colder than the -20 i felt while in canada with no wind!

snaps

You wouldn't want to be leaving your beer out in "Gods fridge" at christmas time there!

nacho libre

The coldest weather i've ever experienced was a blizzard, accompanied by 40 mph winds, with a temperature of -15 in Canada. i had two vests on, two warm winter jumpers on, a big winter coat, a scarf wrapped over my face, gloves, yet I still felt very cold.

Tabnabs

I've done minus 20 odd in Norway. But the memorable event for me is having to use the outhouse facilities in those temperatures!

My old man has been in the minus 40s. He broke the door handle and the window handle/opener (this was in the early 60s) in his car the metal was so brittle with the temperature.

M.T. Cranium

Some places in the Yukon can get almost as cold as these Siberian cold spots. They are in similar locations, shallow basins between mountain ranges, and the air drains down into them under high pressure dropping the temperature to -45 or -50 C (extreme cases about -54 C) which is within ten degrees of what happens at Oiymyakon. One of the coldest spots is a mining town named Mayo.

The difference in climate is that the Yukon can warm considerably in winter if Pacific air flows in and breaks down the inversion, so some of these places have extreme January highs of 5-10 C. But some years this fails to occur and temperatures stay below -20 C all month. Trees also grow in these regions, the determining factor is length of growing season and the species that survive can stand this degree of winter cold. The only deciduous tree that grows in this climate is the poplar, as well as the alder bush. But most of the trees are scrubby spruce and larch (known as tamarack in these parts).

The weather station at Eureka on Ellesmere Island also has a local drainage effect and can fall to -50 C which is a lot colder than most arctic island extreme minima.

There's also an area of northern Maine that has this effect in some winters, and dropped to -47 C a couple of years ago, while it was only -15 to -20 C in a lot of other places not that far away. Bear in mind that's at the same latitude as Bordeaux.

M.T. Cranium

Some places in the Yukon can get almost as cold as these Siberian cold spots. They are in similar locations, shallow basins between mountain ranges, and the air drains down into them under high pressure dropping the temperature to -45 or -50 C (extreme cases about -54 C) which is within ten degrees of what happens at Oiymyakon. One of the coldest spots is a mining town named Mayo.

The difference in climate is that the Yukon can warm considerably in winter if Pacific air flows in and breaks down the inversion, so some of these places have extreme January highs of 5-10 C. But some years this fails to occur and temperatures stay below -20 C all month. Trees also grow in these regions, the determining factor is length of growing season and the species that survive can stand this degree of winter cold. The only deciduous tree that grows in this climate is the poplar, as well as the alder bush. But most of the trees are scrubby spruce and larch (known as tamarack in these parts).

The weather station at Eureka on Ellesmere Island also has a local drainage effect and can fall to -50 C which is a lot colder than most arctic island extreme minima.

There's also an area of northern Maine that has this effect in some winters, and dropped to -47 C a couple of years ago, while it was only -15 to -20 C in a lot of other places not that far away. Bear in mind that's at the same latitude as Bordeaux.

Deep Easterly

Twice! :pac:

nacho libre

I read about record cold in Yukon several months ago.

here is the article: http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/almanac/arc2002/alm02feb.htm

M.T. Cranium

Not sure why that posted twice, but I went out and came back in, found the file still trying to load to boards so I refreshed it. Sometimes boards seems to freeze up even though it's actually working, I guess it's one of the bigger websites around.

But if you read it twice, then it's twice as good, right?

nacho libre

M.T. Cranium wrote: »

Not sure why that posted twice, but I went out and came back in, found the file still trying to load to boards so I refreshed it. Sometimes boards seems to freeze up even though it's actually working, I guess it's one of the bigger websites around.

But if you read it twice, then it's twice as good, right?

I thought it was that you wanted to give Mayo a mention twice:p

Deep Easterly

M.T. Cranium wrote: »

Not sure why that posted twice, but I went out and came back in, found the file still trying to load to boards so I refreshed it. Sometimes boards seems to freeze up even though it's actually working, I guess it's one of the bigger websites around.

But if you read it twice, then it's twice as good, right?

Yep . But I agree, Boards.ie is kinda slow tonight, takes ages to load a page, unless Eircom signal is bad this side.

j1979p

Try the interior of Antarctica guys! Similar continental conditions to Yukon and Siberia except for the fact that it also has altitude (and a lot of it). The -55 C that the coldest parts of Siberia get would be considered quite mild up on the plateau in the winter!

Su Campu

Barking mad. Swimming at -52°C in Yakutia (Siberia)! It must be some sort of hot spring....though "hot" in this case could be +1°C!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBAi44v7Cjo

M.T. Cranium

I think that would have been better if the two of them had reversed roles.

But in any case, I also have been swimming in the middle of winter, although closer to -15 than -52 on the thermometer. This would be at an outdoor hot spring and yes, it is a very chilly walk to the dressing room from the water, but if you keep your entire body under the 35 C water (except your head) it can be quite pleasant, mind you, a crust of ice tends to form on your facial hair which is maybe why it's better for the ladies.

Su Campu

Just look how fast winter has been setting in over the last 30 days. A high of 11.3°C on the 1st, only -22.6°C today, with a min of -36.5°C. And pressure is beginning to rise towards the high winter values, where it often gets above 1060hPa, and even reached 1073hPa in December 2005!

Ojmjakon

Su Campu

Ojmjakon's getting down to near -40°C at night now, and not rising above around -22°C during the day. Snow depth has been at 8cms for the past couple of weeks, but there's been some continuous light snow over the last 24hrs, so we should see that depth increase in the 00Z Synop report.

Meanwhile, there's a cool sounding place not far from Ojmjakon called......Cul'Man...I shít you not! It sure is cool there, man, with the metars reporting -13°C in light snow.

Cul'Man

MagicMarker

Factoring in windchill I've been in -50 before in Canada. Rule No. 1, don't go for a walk without a hat on, my head had never felt so....... weird.

I remember walking home one night, I had a nice comfy warm coat on but I was wearing jeans with no layers underneath. I'd never experienced anything like it, I was shaking so much it was hard to walk in a straight line and when I got home it took so long to get the full feeling back in my legs, and this was a short walk! 10 minutes max. Don't **** with the weather people!

I loved it though!

Su Campu

Today's high was -22.1°C, the low was -37.0°C.

Interesting video of the daily chore of survival in Ojmjakon. I've never seen a block of milk before (well, except for that carton that I forgot about in the fridge last week!!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTcrIGFUq_c

Hooter23

http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/andrews/story/40655/early-cold-wave-in-the-pole-of-cold.asp

gbee

M.T. Cranium wrote: »

Sometimes boards seems to freeze up even though it's actually working, I guess it's one of the bigger websites around.

Browser maybe?

I posted about my experiences with boards.ie and Firefox and was given a trick to edit the config, but it only lasted until it crashed.

During the weekend I could hardly use boards at all. I downloaded Chrome and boards just flew, no problems at all.

I've since uninstalled Firefox everything even the registry and downloaded a fresh copy, now it's working very well again.

So whatever is wrong, is possibly exaggerated by something in Firefox, its cache or an add-on.

WolfeIRE

things looking 'pretty' cold in Norway too

October 2010 produced some of the finest auroras in years around the Arctic Circle--a sign that the sun is waking up for a new solar cycle. Will November 2010 be even better? The month got off to a good start last night in Kvaløya, Norway

Su Campu

The max temperature at Ojmjakon failed to get above -50 °C for the first time this winter, falling short at -50.1 °C. The lowest minimum so far was -53.4 °C on the 6th. Schools in the village only close when it's below -50 °C.

The latest sounding shows just how cold the atmosphere is, with an almost 30 °C rise in temperature with altitude through the first 2-3 kms. In a month or so the sounding will be almost a straight line, meaning around -60 °C all the way from the ground right up through the troposphere!

Scubadevils

I can't begin to imagine what -50 must feel like. I remember going for a walk one night last year after the snow and it was about -7 or so, the cold felt so intense even at that level, so to be another -43c colder... I'd love to experience it but can imagine you'd need to be pretty wrapped up!

dirtyghettokid

that's crazy! i dunno how people can live in that village!
only once when i was 13, i experienced a windchill of -42C (i grew up in southern ontario) and i was out walking home from a mate's house in the morning for 20 minutes and my legs were purple when i got home! it was nasty! that was one day out of 17 years i lived in canada. i can't imagine those poor people in that russian village having to live through so many days of low temps. they must live in multiple layers of fur coats haha