The Coldest Locations Ever Recorded on Earth

Have you ever wondered just how cold it can get on this planet?

I used to think a snowy winter in my country was the ultimate test, but the truth is, Earth has places so cold that most of us can’t even imagine them. We’re talking about temperatures that freeze steel, where the sun doesn’t show up for months and just breathing the air can hurt your lungs.

People have traveled to these spots, risking frostbite or worse, all to unlock nature’s wildest secrets. Some of these frozen places are so extreme that scientists can only measure them from space.

Dome Fuji, Antarctica

I had to stop and just shake my head when I learned how cold Dome Fuji, Antarctica, gets. This isn’t “cold enough for a sweater” or even “really need gloves” kind of cold. This is the cold that scientists only found with satellites, because being there in person is nearly impossible.

In August 2010, NASA satellites spotted a surface temperature of –93.2°C, the coldest ever detected on Earth. That’s so cold that it’s hard to picture. The air in Dome Fuji is dry as a bone, there’s hardly any wind, and in winter, there’s no sunlight for months. Not a drop. It’s a perfect freeze machine. If you stood there without special gear, you might last a minute and you’d never forget it.

• Coldest temp ever measured: –93.2°C (–135.8°F).
• Record found via satellite, not people.
• High ridge: 3,900 meters up (nearly 13,000 feet).
• Six months without sunlight in winter.
• Drier than the Sahara, though it’s all snow.
• The snow actually cracks and shrinks from the cold.
• More than 30 years of data found this cold pocket.
• Colder than anywhere on Mars in summer.

Vostok Research Station, Antarctica

Vostok is nuts. This spot holds the coldest temperature ever measured by people on Earth. On July 21, 1983, scientists read a thermometer there: –89.2°C (–128.6°F). Imagine working in a place where metal shatters, diesel gels, and even breathing hurts. The crew spending Antarctic winters at Vostok lives in total darkness and bitter cold, cut off from the rest of the world for half the year.

Every little mistake could be dangerous or even deadly. Yet people have run experiments there for decades, studying ancient ice and the hidden world beneath the ice.

• Coldest temp ever measured in person.
• 3,488 meters high, remote as can be.
• Crew survives months with no flights in or out.
• Sun doesn’t rise for weeks and weeks.
• Metal and rubber break easily here.
• Under the station: Lake Vostok, a sealed-off subglacial lake.
• Weather events can isolate Vostok even more.
• You’d need multi-layer clothing just to go outside for seconds.

Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station

Living at Earth’s true bottom is wild. The Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station holds the record at –82.8°C (–117.0°F) from June 1982. Here, it’s six months dark, then six months constant sunlight, so there’s never much in between. The ice sheet moves—so the actual South Pole marker has to shift every single year.

The weather feels alien. During summer, the “warmest” ever recorded was still well below freezing. Imagine working in a place where you can’t leave from February until October because it’s too cold for planes to land.

• Permanent research community year-round.
• The station sits on 2,700 meters of moving ice.
• Winter crew gets totally isolated for eight months.
• Sun vanishes from March to September.
• Even “hot” days are below freezing.
• South Pole’s air pressure is lower than you’d think, so breathing feels like being at higher altitudes.
• Scientists study the early universe from here.
• Even metal tools have been known to break in the cold.

Dome Argus (Dome A), Antarctic Plateau

Dome Argus might not sound dramatic, but it’s the highest point on the Antarctic ice. It’s so remote the first group reached it only in 2005! The place is nearly always calm, winds hardly blow, and winter temperatures have dropped as low as –82.5°C (–116.5°F).

It’s also one of the driest places on Earth—barely 1–3 cm of new snow a year. There’s a huge mountain range under the ice here, completely hidden, and scientists dream of building giant telescopes to use the incredibly clear nights.

• Coldest temp: –82.5°C in July 2005.
• Highest Antarctic point: 4,093 meters.
• Little snow, less than most deserts.
• Practically no storms—just silence.
• Underground mountains: the “hidden Alps” of Antarctica.
• International teams install robotic weather stations remotely.
• Site for world-class astronomy (the air is super still).
• Breathing is hard at this high, low-pressure location.

Denali, Alaska

Denali, also called Mount McKinley, is North America’s king of cold. Between 1950 and 1969, a thermometer left on its slopes showed temps as low as –73.8°C (–100.8°F).

Denali is a huge, lonely mountain that catches every storm sweeping through Alaska. Climbers still test their limits here, sometimes facing wind chills below –118°F. Just climbing here in summer is tough. But in winter? That’s for legends.

• Highest North American peak: 6,190 meters.
• Coldest recorded outside the poles.
• Weather can change super fast.
• Even in July, summit temps may reach only –30°C.
• Whole expeditions recorded cold for years with buried thermometers.
• Strong winds make it feel even colder.
• Short winter days, endless summer light.
• Still a popular climbing destination for tough adventurers.

Verkhoyansk, Russia

Most people haven’t heard of Verkhoyansk, but it’s legendary in Russia. This Siberian town has seen –67.8°C (–90.0°F) and held the Northern Hemisphere’s cold record for 128 years. Strangely, it can also get hot in summer and so the temperature swings are wild.

The air here is dry and still. Winters last seven months with little sun. Despite that, about 1,000 people live in Verkhoyansk, with houses on stilts and engines running nonstop just so cars will start.

• Most extreme temperature range: –67.8°C to +37.3°C.
• Deep valley helps trap cold air.
• Little precipitation—it’s technically a polar desert.
• Houses built to handle frozen soil.
• School only closes if it gets colder than –52°C.
• Residents wear many layers of fur.
• Guinness World Record for temperature swing.
• The cold is so common, local life adjusts around it.

Klinck Research Station, Greenland

Greenland’s ice cap is fierce. Back in December 1991, the remote Klinck weather station logged –69.6°C (–93.3°F)—the coldest ever in the Northern Hemisphere, but nobody noticed for almost 30 years.

The cold happened because there was no wind to mix the air—so it just sat, sinking and chilling like nowhere else. The world learned of this only after climate detectives dug through old files.

• Coldest Northern Hemisphere record: –69.6°C.
• Summit elevation: 3,105 meters (over 10,000 feet).
• Record sat hidden in data for decades.
• The ice sheet is the world’s 2nd largest.
• Polar night: weeks without sun in December.
• Dry, clear air lets heat just vanish into space.
• Scientists manually checked all station data after-the-fact.
• High, lonely outposts can freeze colder than Siberian villages.

Oymyakon, Russia

Oymyakon is tough. It’s the coldest inhabited place on Earth, reaching –67.7°C (–89.9°F). Amazingly, about 500 people live here year-round. The soil is always frozen. Most houses don’t even have running water, and if you step outside without gloves, you’ll lose feeling in seconds.

Then, in summer, Oymyakon can be warm and full of daylight, so the year’s temperature swing is a whopping 100°C. Some days in winter, your breath freezes and falls with a tinkling sound.

• Permanent residents in the coldest spot.
• Valley location traps air, making it colder.
• Car engines are left on for weeks at a time.
• No above-freezing temp from October to March.
• School closes below –52°C (anything warmer? You go!).
• Massive swings between winter and summer.
• Locals use outhouses — permafrost stops pipes.
• Colder at the bottom of the valley than on hilltops.

North Ice, Greenland

North Ice was a British research station, but only briefly, from 1952 to 1954. Still, it measured some crazy cold: –66.1°C (–87.0°F) in January 1954. Getting people and supplies there was a feat.

Planes dropped crates from the sky because there was no other option. This outpost’s data helped us understand Greenland’s big ice sheet and when the team left, the whole station was swallowed by snow.

• Coldest North American record (before Klinck).
• Ran only two years before being abandoned.
• Needed supply drops from airplanes.
• Over two kilometers of ice below the station.
• 78° North means long dark winters.
• Research led to new polar science methods.
• Valleys and high elevations drive the cold.
• Photos and field notes are all that remain.

Snag, Yukon, Canada

Back in February 1947, at the village of Snag, Canada, Gordon Toole and Wilf Blezard watched the thermometer drop lower than they’d ever seen—down to –63.0°C (–81.4°F).

At this temp, your breath freezes and falls to the ground. Sound travels in weird ways; you could hear dogs bark from four miles away through the thick frost. The place is almost deserted today, but its record stands for continental North America.

• Coldest ever in continental North America.
• Observers could hear sounds miles away.
• Moisture from rivers made “frost fog.”
• Snag is surrounded by hills—perfect for cold traps.
• The temp was too low for regular ink to work.
• Breath “tinkles” as it falls frozen to the ground.
• Old airstrip and weather records tell the story.
• After the record, temperatures shot up 36°F in four days.

Have you ever experienced extreme cold? Share your story below!

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