Do you love white sandy beaches and tropical heat waves or do you prefer the frigid temperatures of winter, skiing down snow-packed mountains and enjoying a crackling fire as snow falls and covers the frozen ground? Though many people travel to warmer climates to avoid the winter doldrums, there are a few places in the world that easily make our complaints and our versions of winter look silly.
When it’s summer, we usually complain it’s too hot and humid and, when it’s winter, we complain it’s too dry and cold. In all honesty, we actually live in one of the most temperate climates in the world where every season is bearable whether it’s 20 degree winters or 100 degree summers. However, not everyone is as lucky as there are a few places in the world where 20 degrees feels like summer and anything above 80 degrees is practically unheard of!
So where are these places and just how cold does it get? Grab your parka, scarves, hand warmers and hats because it’s about to get chilly! Join us as we travel around the world to visit 5 of the coldest places on Earth that will definitely leave you shivering! Pour yourself a cup of hot cocoa and think warm thoughts as we get started in the United States and travel abroad for these frigid and frostbitten cities!

1 Oymyakon, Russia...

Staying in Russia’s Sakha Republic for the coldest place in the world, the rural city of Oymyakon is located on the Indigirka River and boasts a tiny population of 500 people. Named after the Oymyakon River, the community saw a temporary increase in people during World War II after the construction of the Alaska-Siberian airfield. However, with days lasting anywhere from three hours in December to 21 hours in June, many residents packed up and left to find a warmer and friendlier climate. Known as part of the “Northern Pole of Cold,” Oymyakon spends seven months of the year with sub-zero temperatures with the coldest months of December, January and February averaging -58 degrees with highs hovering around -44.5 degrees. In 1924 the town reported its coldest temperature on record at -96 degrees with only the uninhabited Antarctica holding a colder record at -128.6. Those 20 degree temps we first saw on the list don’t seem so bad after all, now do they?

2:Verkhoyansk, Russia


Nestled just 419 miles north of Yakutsk in the Sakha Republic is the small Russian town of Verkhoyansk whose population is just over 1,300 people. Verkhoyansk sits on the Yana River and once served as a safe haven in the late 1800s and early 1900s when prominent exiles like Polish writer Warclaw Sieroszewksi sought refuge. Since then, the town saw another round of immigrants in 2012 only this time a pack of 400 wolves moved in and attacked the town leaving the local government to agree that the harsh climate and vegetation could barely support 500 wolves in the entire republic. While the wolves were devastating enough, dealing with the weather in Verkhoyansk is just as risky with the average temperature in January resting at -44.3 degrees with lows plummeting to -54.9. The town spends seven months of the year at sub-zero temperatures with its lowest temperature on record at -90 degrees, which has been repeated on numerous occasions. The summers, however, give Verkhoyansk’s residents plenty of time to warm up with June through August temps reaching highs in the 70s and 80s, which makes up for the town never recording a temperature above freezing between November and March.

my fridge should be on that list

3:: Yakutsk, Russia
Staying in Russia’s Sakha Republic for the coldest place in the world, the rural city of Oymyakon is located on the Indigirka River and boasts a tiny population of 500 people. Named after the Oymyakon River, the community saw a temporary increase in people during World War II after the construction of the Alaska-Siberian airfield. However, with days lasting anywhere from three hours in December to 21 hours in June, many residents packed up and left to find a warmer and friendlier climate. Known as part of the “Northern Pole of Cold,” Oymyakon spends seven months of the year with sub-zero temperatures with the coldest months of December, January and February averaging -58 degrees with highs hovering around -44.5 degrees. In 1924 the town reported its coldest temperature on record at -96 degrees with only the uninhabited Antarctica holding a colder record at -128.6. Those 20 degree temps we first saw on the list don’t seem so bad after all, now do they?

4::Fort Good Hope, Canada


Thanks to its incredibly harsh climate, there are only around 43,000 people brave enough to live in the entire Northwest Territories province of Canada. Out of the Territories’ 33 communities, Fort Good Hope is one of the least populated towns with just over 500 people, the majority of whom are North American Indians. Reached only by air and nestled on a route used by the Northern Transportation Company, residents earn their living from hunting and trapping as the seasons allow. Despite seeing highs in the upper 60s in June and July, Fort Good Hope’s summer is short lived as the community spends the majority of the year below freezing or at sub-zero temperatures. Much like many of the other towns on our list, January temperatures prove to be the coldest with an average high of -10.8 degrees that has been known to drop to an average low of -25.1 degrees. Add in record-breaking wind chills and it’s no surprise that Fort Good Hope’s lowest recorded temp came in at a brutally cold -68.1 degrees!

5::Barrow, Alaska

Earning the titles as both the northernmost and the coldest city in the United States, the town of Barrow, Alaska just so happens to also be part of the Last Frontier. Located above the Arctic Circle and roughly 1,300 miles south of the North Pole, Barrow has no wind barriers or valleys to protect its nearly 5,000 residents from sub-zero temperatures that occur 160 days of the year. Add in white out conditions and extremely low wind chill that make being outdoors nearly impossible and Barrow brings new meaning to the phrase “bitterly cold.” With July typically the “hottest” month of the year with an average high of 47 degrees, Barrow sees its coldest months in January and February with highs averaging at -8 degrees (yes, you read that right!) and lows plummeting to -20.4. The first snow of the season typically arrives in early October with the sun setting around November 18 and not returning until late January. The polar night, in addition to the frigid temperatures and no roads connecting the city to the rest of Alaska, leave Barrow’s native Eskimos literally secluded in the arctic tundra.

Even living inside deep freezer is better than this.

The list is incomplete without Sapporro Japan.

when will i even leave this country sef...?

obojememe:
when will i even leave this country sef...?

You can leave today.

tobisco29:
You can leave today.

i know I can leave today but that is if the resources is there. Right now I hope in Jesus oo

what about Iceland and Siberia?