Pole of Cold

The Poles of Cold are the places in the Southern and Northern hemispheres where the lowest air temperatures have been recorded.

In the Southern Hemisphere, the Pole of Cold is currently located in Antarctica, at the Russian (formerly Soviet) Antarctic station Vostok at 78°28′S106°48′E / 78.467°S 106.800°E / -78.467; 106.800 (Vostok). On July 21, 1983, this station recorded a temperature of −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F). This is the lowest naturally occurring temperature ever recorded on Earth. Vostok station is located at the elevation of 3,488 m (11,444 ft) above sea level, far removed from the moderating influence of oceans (more than 1,000 km [620 mi] from the nearest sea coast), and high latitude that results in almost three months of civil polar night every year (early May to end of July), all combine to produce an environment where temperatures rarely rise above −25 °C (−13 °F) during summer and frequently fall below −70 °C (−94 °F) in winter. By comparison, the South Pole, due to its lower elevation, is, on average, 5 to 10 °C (9 to 18 °F) warmer than Vostok, and the lowest temperature ever recorded at the South Pole is −82.8 °C (−117 °F).

It is generally thought that Vostok is not the coldest place in Antarctica, and there are locations (notably, Dome A) that are modestly colder on average. The now inactive Plateau Station, located on the central Antarctic plateau, recorded an average yearly temperature that was consistently lower than that of Vostok Station during the 37-month period that it was active in the late 1960s, with its average for the coldest month being several degrees lower than the same statistic for Vostok. Plateau Station never recorded a temperature that surpassed the record low set at Vostok. However, temperatures at Plateau Station were only recorded during the 37 months that it was active. Had a lower temperature than the Vostok record occurred there at a later date, it would never have been recorded.

Monitoring stations in Antarctica are few and far between; prior to 1995, Vostok was the only research station on the Antarctic Plateau above the elevation of 3,000 m (with the exception of Plateau Station during the brief period that it was active in the 1960s), with no other stations for several hundred kilometers in any direction. Temperatures below −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F), if they did occur elsewhere, would not have been recorded. The automatic weather station at Dome A was only installed in 2005, and has recorded −82.5 °C (−116.5 °F) as the coldest so far (2010). However, a review of satellite measurements taken between 2010 and 2013 found several places located along a ridge between Dome A and Dome F which recorded even lower temperatures of −92 to −94 °C (−134 to −137 °F), with the lowest reliable temperature being −93.2 °C (−135.8 °F) recorded in 2010, at 81°48′S59°18′E / 81.8°S 59.3°E / -81.8; 59.3, at an elevation of 3,900 m (12,800 ft). The extreme low temperatures are found in hollows slightly below the peak of the ice ridge, where cold air gets trapped as it flows downhill, and since the same low temperature ranges were detected at several different sites along the ridge across multiple years, it is thought this may be the lowest temperature achievable under local atmospheric conditions.^[1][2]

In the Northern Hemisphere, there are two towns in Sakha, Russia that compete for the title of "Pole of Cold". These are Verkhoyansk (located at 67°33′N133°23′E / 67.550°N 133.383°E / 67.550; 133.383 (Verkhoyansk), altitude 127 metres (417 ft)) and Oymyakon (located at 63°15′N143°9′E / 63.250°N 143.150°E / 63.250; 143.150 (Oymyakon), altitude 745 metres (2,444 ft)). However, the World Meteorological Organization has recognized in 2020 a temperature of −69.6 °C (−93.3 °F), measured near the topographic summit of the Greenland Ice Sheet on 22 December 1991, as the lowest in the Northern Hemisphere. The record was measured at an automatic weather station and was uncovered after nearly 30 years.^[3]

In December 1868 and then in February 1869 Ivan Khudyakov made the discovery of the Northern Pole of Cold by measuring a record temperature of −63.2 °C (−81.8 °F) in Verkhoyansk. Later, on January 15, 1885, a temperature of −67.8 °C (−90.0 °F) was registered there by Sergey Kovalik. This measurement was published in the Annals of the General Physical Observatory in 1892; by mistake it was written as −69.8 °C (−93.6 °F),^[4] which was later corrected. One can still find this incorrect value in some literature. The coldest reliably measured temperature in Verkhoyansk was −67.8 °C (−90.0 °F) on February 5 and 7 of 1892.

El  6 de febrero de 1933, se registró  una temperatura de −67,7 °C (−89,9 °F) en la estación meteorológica de Oymyakon. ^{[ 5 ]} En ese momento, esta fue la temperatura más fría medida de forma fiable en el hemisferio norte . La estación meteorológica se encuentra en un valle entre Oymyakon y Tomtor . La estación está a 750 m (2460 pies) y las montañas circundantes a 1100 m (3600 pies) , lo que provoca que el aire frío se acumule en el valle: estudios recientes muestran que las temperaturas invernales en la zona aumentan con la altitud hasta en 10 °C (18 °F) . ^{[ 6 ]} La temperatura media en Oymyakon ha aumentado unos 2,7 grados Celsius desde la época preindustrial. ^{[ 7 ]}        

El 22 de diciembre de 1991, la Estación Meteorológica Automática (AWS) de Klinck (ubicada en 72°31′N 40°48′W / 72.517°N 40.800°W / 72.517; -40.800 ( Klinck ) , altitud 3105 metros (10 187 pies) ^{[ 8 ]} ) en Groenlandia registró una temperatura de −69,6 °C (−93,3 °F) . La OMM validó los metadatos y las observaciones y pudo concluir que la observación era creíble en términos de calibración del instrumento, monitoreo de la estación y la situación sinóptica. El Relator de la OMM aceptó la observación como la temperatura del aire cerca de la superficie más baja observada oficialmente para los hemisferios norte y occidental . ^{[ 9 ]}   

• Lista de registros meteorológicos
• Temperatura más baja registrada en la Tierra
• La vida en el congelador
• El lugar más frío del universo

• Living in Antarctica
• Ask about life in the Pole of Cold
• Visit the Pole of Cold