Inside The World’s Coldest City Built On Permanent Permafrost Where Residents Suffer -60 Degree Celsius And Car Engines Never Stop | World News
Yakutsk: While others complain about a cold winter morning, 355,000 people in Yakutsk are enjoying warmth that makes an ordinary freezer look like a tropical paradise. In the city, a Siberian outpost built on permafrost, temperatures plummeted to -56°C, forcing schools to close and people leaving their homes for just a few minutes.
Despite its chilling climate, Yakutsk is much more than a frozen landscape. A living city where life goes on despite the conditions of “ice fog” and “perpetual twilight”.
Climate: -64°C & +40°C
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The record holder for the largest difference between the hottest and coldest temperatures is Yakutsk.
Low Registration: The city recorded a record low temperature of -64.4°C in 1891. It recently recorded the lowest temperature in two decades at -62.7°C in January 2023.
Summer Surprises: Geographically, summers in Svalbard are extremely hot, with temperatures reaching 40°C; In fact, there is an incredible 100° variation in seasons.
Ice Fog: In the middle of winter, the atmospheric temperature is so low that water vapor generated by exhaust and respiration instantly turns into ice, reducing visibility to less than five meters.
How the Residents Live: “Dress Like a Cabbage”
“In Yakutsk, you have to have a military-grade morning routine. The ‘cabbage’ approach I follow is to pile clothes on top of each other until they can barely move, as suggested by popular regional bloggers like Kiun B.”
Threaded: Standard clothing includes thermal underwear, camel wool knee pads, insulated trousers, two jackets, fur-lined gloves and traditional reindeer skin boots (unty).
20 Minute Rule: If the thermometer drops to -40°C, there is a high risk of frostbite of the nose, ears and fingers from staying in the cold for more than 10 to 20 minutes.
Logistics of a Frozen City
Maintaining infrastructure in permanently frozen regions (permafrost) is a challenging task for the following reasons:
houses on stilts
The houses are built on concrete piles so that their heat does not melt the permafrost layer below; Otherwise, it would collapse and sink due to its own weight.
Never Turn Off Your Car
Vehicle owners should always leave engines running in heated garages and outside. If a vehicle sits motionless outside, the engine oils instantly freeze, turning the vehicle into a “sculpture”. Vehicle owners can’t pick it up until April, during the spring thaw.
Life is on the Sidelines: Residents are asked not to wear metal-framed glasses (their face will freeze) or use cell phones outside, as the screen and batteries will fail within minutes.
Why Do You Live Here?
Despite its harsh climate, Yakutsk is an important economic center. The region is a “true treasure mine” where one-fifth of the world’s diamonds and huge amounts of gas are extracted. Residents do not see the harsh climate as a disaster; instead it is their way of life.
In an interview, one local said: “It’s not the cold that kills you; it’s the lack of preparation.”
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