What is the coldest place on Earth?
The coldest place on Earth is the East Antarctic Plateau. Satellites have measured surface temperatures near −94°C (−137°F) there.
The official record for the lowest air temperature measured at a weather station is −89.2°C (−128.6°F), recorded at Russia's Vostok Station in Antarctica on July 21, 1983. Satellite studies later found even colder snow surfaces on high ridges of the East Antarctic Plateau, around −94°C, during clear, calm winter nights.
The plateau is cold because it is high, more than 3,000 meters above sea level, far from the ocean and in darkness for months during the polar winter. Dry air lets heat escape into space easily.
The coldest inhabited places
The coldest places where people live year-round are villages in Siberia. Oymyakon and Verkhoyansk in Russia have both recorded temperatures below −67°C (−90°F). In these places, schools close only when the temperature drops below about −50°C.
Did You Know?
The South Pole is not the coldest point in Antarctica. The Amundsen-Scott station there averages about −49°C over the year, while parts of the higher plateau are colder.