World’s Coldest City Just Reached Minus 80 Degrees

Winter has never been this cold. Consider Yakutsk, the capital city of Russia's Sakha Republic in eastern Siberia. This place is widely acknowledged as the coldest city in the world. In fact, the lowest recorded temperature in the city before this new record was around 50° below zero Celsius (58° below zero Fahrenheit). 

With large parts of Russia experiencing record low temperatures, the city was not excluded at all! Yakutsk is also seeing an abnormally long cold snap. Temperatures have currently plunged to -62.7°C (-80.9° Fahrenheit). This is the coldest ever recorded in more than two decades! 

These numbers, while record breaking, do pose serious physical risks, especially for the residents in the city. The air is cold enough to numb skin, which means frostbite is something residents and visitors will constantly fight against. Additionally, Yakutsk is now shrouded in “ice fog,” a phenomenon that occurs when the air is so cold that hot air cannot rise. 

Residents fight against the extreme temperatures through their clothing. "Just dress warmly. In layers, like a cabbage," a resident selling frozen fish in the market, said. Regardless of the current conditions inside the city, it still manages to attract adventurous travelers that want to see what living in the coldest place on Earth is like. 

Image via The Independent