One day we woke up to a -12ºF temperature reading
outside, here in Columbia, MO.

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Oymyakon, Russia

And I thought, there’s got to be something positive about that.  We just can’t be the coldest place on earth today.  So I quickly jumped on our ever knowledgeable internet and discovered that,
yes, there is somewhere colder . . .

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In Oymyakon, Russia it is most definitely colder than mid-MO.
Today they were reading -64ºF.  Now that’s cold!!!

So I think I’ll keep our cozy -12º and be quiet about the temperature.

And yet, it’s been a long and Snowy winter this year in a good part of the U.S.
So, thought I’d make a short video dedicated to the Lord’s beautiful gift of SNOW . . .

A March Snow Globe – video link

Some other pics of our Snowy Winter . . .

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Oymyakon, Russia Weather

If you’d like to keep a eye on the coldest town on earth, here’s a link to weather in Oymyakon, Russia.

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Stay warm Ruskies, and God bless you all!

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So where is this Oymyakon…

Oymyakon Boy

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Must have good insulation, or I would hate to see inside!

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And here’s one to help you feel,
“Just like you’re there”  …

Oymyakon Excursion

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Oymyakon Music

There’s even a site where you can listen to
some Oymyakon Music . . .

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Ran into the question of, “Why Oymyakon is so cold?”
It’s not on the top of the globe.

This was a nutshell answer:  by tanetahi, a Flickr pro user:
“The reason Oymyakon gets so cold in winter is the combination of its elevation above sea level and its being sited in a valley between two mountain ranges. The valley behaves as a frost-hollow in calm anticyclonic weather during the Siberian winter, so yes, it does kind of make its own weather.”

In the attached blog – there’s a little more detail:  AskYakutia.com

and a reference to what sounds like a pretty interesting book:

Going to Extremes  by Nick Middleton

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While Oymyakon may be the coldest inhabited place on earth,
there are colder places where people have lived,
though maybe not permanently.

The following is an excerpt from the Wikipedia article on the South Pole . . .

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South Pole, Antarctica – Climate and Daylight

See also Climate of Antarctica, Midnight sun and Polar night

Lake Vostok, Antarctica

During the southern winter (March – September), the South Pole receives no sunlight at all, and from May to July, between extended periods of twilight, it is completely dark (apart from moonlight). In the summer (September – March), the sun is continuously above the horizon and appears to move in a anti-clockwise circle. However, it is always low in the sky, reaching a maximum of 23.5° in December. Much of the sunlight that does reach the surface is reflected by the white snow. This lack of warmth from the sun, combined with the high altitude (about 2,800 meters (9,186 ft)), means that the South Pole has one of the coldest climates on Earth (though it is not quite the coldest; that record goes to the region in the vicinity of the Vostok Station, also in Antarctica, which lies at a higher elevation).

South Pole Temperatures

Temperatures at the South Pole are much lower than at the North Pole, primarily because the South Pole is located at altitude in the middle of a continental land mass, while the North Pole is at sea level in the middle of an ocean (which acts as a reservoir of heat).

Vostok Station, Antarctica

In midsummer, as the sun reaches its maximum elevation of about 23.5 degrees, high temperatures at the South Pole in January average at −25.9 °C (−15 °F). As the six-month “day” wears on and the sun gets lower, temperatures drop as well: they reach −45 °C (−49 °F) around sunset (late March) and sunrise (late September). In winter, the average temperature remains steady at around −58 °C (−72 °F).

The highest temperature ever recorded at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station was −13.6 °C (7.5 °F) on December 27, 1978, and the lowest was −82.8 °C (−117.0 °F) on June 23, 1982.  The lowest temperature recorded anywhere on earth was −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F) at Vostok Station  on July 21, 1983, where a research drilling project is being performed to reach one of the largest fresh water lakes on earth.

UPDATES
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[Lake reached in February of 2012]
Feb. 2012 – Video Link
Mar. 2013 Update – Life? Or just contamination…  PopSci Article
July 2013 Updates – Life?   Ars Technica,  Telegraph (certainty!?), Discovery News
Aug. 2020 Article and Video: WAP Worldwide Antarctic Program
Dec. 20, 2020 Update on Vostok Station:  Meduza Article (“Trouble at Vostok Station”)
Dec. 2022 Generic article on Lake Vostok: Interesting Engineering
2022 YouTube – on Antarctica
Dec 2022 search result: Google

Deep beneath the surface

The South Pole has a desert climate, almost never receiving any precipitation. Air humidity is near zero. However, high winds can cause the blowing of snowfall, and the accumulation of snow amounts to about 20 cm (7.9 in) per year.  The dome seen in the pictures is partially buried due to snow storms, and the entrance to the dome has to be regularly bulldozed to uncover it. More recent buildings are raised on stilts so that the snow does not build up against the sides of them.

Ceremonial South Pole