The Coldest Places on Earth

Think winter where you live is tough? Imagine living in one of these places, and you'll feel warmer in no time.

Vostok, Antarctica
Lowest temperature: -129 degrees F

This Russian research station, located some 1,300 kilometers from the South Pole, at an elevation of more than 11,000 feet, holds the record for the lowest temperature ever recorded at Earth's surface (-129 degrees F, set on July 21, 1983). Antarctica's Plateau Station, operated in the 1960s by the United States National Science Foundation and the U.S. Navy, can mount a stiff challenge for the title of world's coldest place, however. It owns the record for coldest measured average temperature for a month (-99.8 degrees F, in July 1968) and the lowest annual mean (-69 degrees F).

Oymyakon, Russia
Lowest temperature: -96 degrees F

The notoriously harsh climate of Siberia is especially brutal around Oymyakon, a village located a few hundred miles south of the Arctic Circle, in far northeastern Russia. Originally populated only in the summer by reindeer herders, it became a permanent settlement after 1920, when the Soviet government began encouraging nomadic tribes to settle there. It is now the coldest inhabited place on Earth and the holder of the record for lowest temperature ever recorded in Asia (-96 degrees F, in January 1926). Aside from a short summer season, when temperatures can reach as high as 100 degrees F, nothing grows in the region, and Oymyakon's residents subsist largely on reindeer and horse meat.

Snag, Yukon, Canada
Lowest temperature: -81 degrees F

The lowest temperature ever recorded in North America was -81 degrees F, at Snag in Canada's Yukon Territory, in February 1947. Named for the tendency of boats to get snagged in the rough waters of the White River and its tributaries (including Snag Creek) during the Klondike Gold Rush, Snag had a population of only 10 people at the time. The historic low was measured by a weatherman stationed at the Snag airport, about 15 miles east of the border town of Beaver Creek. Located in a bowl-shaped valley of the White River, Snag is blocked from the flow of warmer air from the Pacific Ocean by several nearby mountain ranges. At the same time, cold air that forms in the mountain peaks drains downward into the valley, creating a unique climate that in winter can be compared to that of eastern Siberia.

Prospect Creek, Alaska
Lowest temperature: -80 degrees F

In January 1971, Alaska came close to beating Snag's North American record, when weathermen at Prospect Creek recorded a temperature of -80 degrees. Prospect Creek, located in northern Alaska, 25 miles southeast of Bettles, was the site of a camp set up for pipeline construction. The building of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline brought a huge influx of people to Alaska from "the lower 48" and beyond in the 1970s, turning Fairbanks into a relatively booming city and camps into party towns with plentiful food, as well as alcohol and drugs. Now stretching 800 miles from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, the northernmost ice-free U.S. port, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline was completed in 1977 and has since transported more than 15 billion barrels of oil.

Rogers Pass, Montana
Lowest temperature: -70 degrees F

Rogers Pass, Montana is judged by a certain measure to be the cold-weather champ of the lower 48 states, after having recorded a low of -70 degrees F on January 20, 1954. Located in Lewis and Clark County, some 40 miles northwest of Helena, Rogers Pass sits at an elevation of 5,740 feet, about a half-mile east of the summit of the Continental Divide. It is known as a prime location to sight golden and bald eagles, which can be viewed at close distances during their spring and fall migrations. Two other U.S. cities claiming cold-weather bragging rights—and the title of "Icebox of the Nation"—are International Falls, Minnesota, where temperatures year-round average only 36.4 degrees F, and Fraser, Colorado, with a year-round average of 32.5 degrees F.