Pole of Cold

From Freepedia

The Poles of Cold are the places in the Northern and Southern hemispheres where the lowest air temperature was recorded.

The Northern Hemisphere

In the Northern hemisphere, the there are several places of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Siberia, Russia which argue for the honour to be considered the Pole of Cold. These are Verkhoyansk (located at 67°33′ N 133°23′ E) and Oymyakon (located at 63°15′ N 143°9′ E).

In December of 1868 and then in February of 1869 I.A.Khudyakov made the discovery of the Northern Pole of Cold by measuring a record temperature of -63.2°C in Verkhoyansk. Later, on January 15, 1885 a temperature of -67.8°C was registered there by S.F.Kovalik, which became the new World record, and still holds the record for the orthern Hemisphere. This measurement was published in the "Annals of the General Physical Observatory" in 1892, however by mistake is was written as -69.8°C, which was later corrected. One can still find in some literature the wrong value of -69.8°C.

On February 6, 1933, an absolute minimum of -67.7°C was registered in Oymyakon, which is still 0.1 degrees warmer than the Verkhoyansk record. This gives Verkhoyansk the right to be the true Northern Pole of Cold. A temperature if -71°C is said to have been measured in Oimyakon, however in reality it was obtained by extrapolation method rather than measured directly, and is not valid as a World record.

However, the conventional practice is to round the measurement up to 1 degree centigrade. In this convention, the two places share the World record of -68°C. On the other hand, it is not correct to compare the data measured in different years with different equipment and different uncertainties. A more correct procedure is to compare average temperatures over large periods of time. On the average, the temperature at Oymyakon appeared to be lower than at Verkhoyansk during 70 years of simultaneous observations.

Another possible candidate is settlement of Tamtor, also in Sakha.

In conclusion, it is still arguable where exactly the Northern Pole of Cold is. However, it is certainly known to be in northeastern Siberia.

The Southern Hemisphere

In the Southern hemisphere, the Pole of Cold is in Antarctica near the Russian (Soviet) antarctic station Vostok, at 78°28′ S 106°48′ E. (July 21, 1983, a temperature of -89,9°C or -128.6°F).