I live in the world’s coldest city, with -64°C winters and brutal ‘ice fog’
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If there’s one thing Brits love to do it’s complain about the weather. Regardless of whether it’s too hot, too cold, or too wet, we can always find something to have a good sigh and moan over. But while it might often be a bit drizzly and chilly here, we don’t really have it too bad, all things considered.
![[Russia, Republic of Sakha, Yakutsk, Snow-covered city in winter]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1286925487.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
It’s not like we’re dealing with the sweltering heat of Kuwait City in the Middle East – the world’s hottest city. Here, temperatures reach an unbearable 54°C, birds quite literally fall out of the sky, and they have to have air conditioning on the streets as it’s so hot.
![[Frosty Yakutsk Street, Siberia]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-523802314.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
We’re also very fortunate to not be living in the world’s coldest city, where the temperature can be as low as -64°C and frostbite is a constant risk. This chilly location is Yakutsk in Siberia, Russia, which is built on continuous permafrost, meaning the ground is permanently frozen. If that wasn’t enough, in the winter the city gets less than four hours of sunlight per day, making visibility incredibly low (less than five metres).
![[Rear view of people standing on snow covered field,Yakutsk,Sakha Republic,Russia]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1280632133.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
Despite the incredibly challenging living conditions this presents, the city is home to more than 355,000 people, and residents aren’t just surviving there, they’re actually thriving. Here’s how they manage. As we’ve heard, it’s incredibly cold in Yakutsk, with temperatures well below -20°C from November through to February, and a December average of -37°C. The city’s temperature once even plummeted to a record low of -64.4°C (in February 1891), and in January 2023 the city experienced the coldest weather in two decades at -62.7°C .
