The coldest city on Earth, but people still choose to live here

Posted by Administrator on 29th January, 2014

Lifestyle - If snow and cold weather where you live has you down, be glad you're not a resident of Yakutsk. The Siberian outpost, population 270,000, is said to be the coldest city in the world, according to the Guardian and other reports.

Located 3,100 miles by air from Moscow, the remote city in the far east of Russia hits temperatures as low as -49 degrees Fahrenheit. Friday's forecast is a frigid -42 degrees Fahrenheit.

That seems almost balmy compared with the coldest recorded temperature: -83 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the Moscow Times.

While the extremely low mercury would send most of us into hibernation, locals continue with their daily life, which means going outside in extreme conditions, bundled up from head to toe in parkas, furs, and woolens. Like in this video: http://youtu.be/1Pi9yQQVQeA

This kind of cold is no joke: In addition to weather so severe it can give you frostbite while running errands, there's also the freezing fog, which limits visibility to 20 or 30 feet.

Despite these obvious weather challenges, the city, located along the Lena River, about 280 miles south of the Arctic Circle, is a major port town. It is also the site of diamond and gold extraction, along with oil and gas production — which has the side benefit of keeping the "frost encrusted houses" in steady supply of much-needed heat.

Many homes are built on stilts because of the year-round permafrost, notes Lonely Planet. When the short-lived spring arrives, icy roads turn to muddy muck. It's the one time of year when residents can't cross the usually iced-over river — which has no bridge.

Summers, by the way, are short, hot and mosquito filled, so maybe year-round winter doesn't seem so bad after all.

 

Source: yahoo.com

Last changed: 29th January, 2014 at 3:16 PM