When you are thinking
about Russia, the images of winter land come to your mind. Piles of snow, frost
paintings on windows, little kids with red cheeks building snow fortresses
outside, Ded Maroz coming with his blue coat and a huge sack of gifts,
Christmas trees with silver decorations and little snowflakes are quietly
falling all the time. This sounds like a magical winter tale, but the reality
is different. However, Russians are proud of their little winter wonderland
called Oymyakon which is not so magical as it is called the coldest inhabited
place on Earth.
Temperature
Oymyakon is a small
village in the east Yakutia and it’s the coldest place on Earth where people
permanently live and work for many years. This village was named after the Oymyakon
River which in a local dialect has two meanings: ‘unfrozen spot of water where
fish spend the wintertime’ or ‘frozen lake’. This still is a serious object of
discussions for the local people.
Oymyakon is situated in a
place of subarctic climate zone, as a result, the ground is permanently frozen here.
It means activities such as go for a picnic or sunbathing sound like the major
luxury for the locals. The annual average
temperature here is about -16 °C. However, it’s not
always snowing here. People experience very short summers in this place, but
this time of the year is very rainy, as a result, the average amount of
rainfall is 234 mm. The warmest month is July when the temperature
can be up to +13 °C. Wintertime is long and difficult as January is the coldest
month when the temperature can be lower than -40 °C.
This little village is
known for the record: the lowest temperature of the full inhabitant area was
recorded here in January of 1924 when it dropped up to −71.2 °C. Only
Antarctica has recorded a lower official temperature of −89.2 °C in 1983.
However, there are no permanent human being residents.
Daily life
Sometimes the temperature
reaches the minus in the beginning of September and comes back to zero or plus
degrees only in May. There have been a few years when the temperature of July
was almost −10 °C and other years when the daily temperature of the whole month
of January has been below −60.0 °C. So, it’s nothing but a miracle that people
live there, have jobs, daily activities and don’t see anything weird about
their lifestyles.
All local people know
that it’s better not to go outside without covering your face when the
temperature is below -30°C, don’t try to inhale the air directly without face
mask as the frost can hurt the nasal cavity and trachea. Due to the difficulty
of digging plumbing, most bathrooms are pit latrines out on the street. Surprisingly but protect your body,
bathroom or house from the cold isn’t the biggest problem for locals. The most
difficult tasks are the burial of their dead relatives. As the ground is
permanently frozen into ice, it takes a lot of time, fire, gas-based equipment and
hard-working to dig a decent grave.
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