A cold snap in “the coldest city in the world”? -62.7 degrees… It had been more than two decades since Yakutsk, Russia, had experienced such temperatures. According to CNN, two days before this new record, the city had already seen the mercury drop below -50 degrees. The temperatures recorded in the region are particularly low and are more than 20 degrees lower than the average for a month of January, considered to be the coldest of the year in Yakutsk (-40 degrees).
The cold, a danger for humans
This city, capital of the Republic of Sakha in eastern Siberia, is considered one of the coldest places on earth. While most of Russia has recorded record temperatures in recent days, the cold spell hitting Yakutsk is abnormally long. Accustomed to extreme cold, the inhabitants of the city still take additional precautions in the face of such temperatures which can be dangerous for humans. Freezing cold like this can lead to frostbite which can cause severe pain in the extremities of the body.
“Either you adapt and dress accordingly, or you suffer,” a resident told Reuters in two scarves and several layers of gloves and balaclavas. “You can’t beat the cold,” he adds. According to another passer-by interviewed, you have to dress warmly, “in layers, like a cabbage”.
An “icy fog”
In winter, visibility in the city is greatly reduced due to “icy fog”. According to the Northeastern Federal University of Yakutsk, this phenomenon occurs when “the air is so cold that the warm air from houses, people and cars cannot rise” and therefore blocks vapor on the ground. Faced with this cold wave, the University specifies, in a notice sent to its students and particularly to newcomers, that “it is not a good idea to go out in the streets in winter when the temperature drops below -40 degrees”.
A city hit by climate change
This is not the first time that the Russian city has been the victim of extreme climatic phenomena. While many regions of the world are suffering the consequences of climate change, Yakutsk had already made headlines in July 2022. Major fires had affected the forests near the city, causing thick smoke covering the entire region. In addition, scientists are concerned about the increasing number of fires that regularly hit Siberia, caused by global warming.