A small village in the Sakha Republic in Siberia, Russia, has shot to international fame for being the coldest place on Earth.
Oymyakon, which means “unfrozen patch of water; place where fish spend the winter”, is a village of just 500 people. The electronic thermometer installed in the village malfunctioned as temperatures plummeted to -62 degree Celsius.
Residents of the village have recorded temperatures as low as -67 degree Celsius. The village is served by just one shop.
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Oymyakon falls in the region which is one of the coldest on Earth. Temperatures in Sakha Republic easily touch -40 degree Celsius in the winters.
On 13 January, Anastasia Gruzdeva, a resident of Yakutsk in the same region, posted a selfie she took with her friends. Snow on their eyelashes made the world realise the intensity of severe cold in the region.
Yet people continue to go about their daily lives despite the literally bone chilling cold. They were also surprised when a group of Chinese tourists jumped into the pool of water, which lends the village its name.
Commenting on the ‘daredevilry’ of the Chinese tourists, Yakutian journalist Elena Pototskaya marvelled, “This does not freeze even in severe frosts in Oymyakon. Horror! Us locals are afraid to go out in such a cold. And here … the tourists are swimming …! [sic].”
Oymyakon recorded its lowest ever temperature, -67.7 degree Celsius, in February 1933.
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