Northern Hemisphere Sets New, All-Time Record Cold Temperature: -96.1°F In Oymyakon Siberia

UPDATE 2: No official confirmation of this record is available. Read here. Now it looks like it’s a bogus story.

UPDATE 1: Russian media seems to confirm the new record: http://publicpost.ru/theme/id/3284/oymyakon/! Here it writes:

Село Оймякон — самая холодная точка на планете. На днях тут похолодало до минус 71 градуса — это самая низкая температура за всю историю измерения. Предыдущий рекорд был в 1933 году, когда ударил мороз минус 67,8 градусов.

In English (Bing translation):

The village of Oymyakon is the coldest point on the planet. The other day here it became colder to minus 71 degrees is the lowest temperature ever measured. The previous record was in 1933, when the Frost hit minus 67.8 degrees.”

But others point out that Weather Underground, for example, shows no temperatures being close to that. So the mystery remains. For the time being, there is no record until otherwise officially stated.

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That’s -71.2°C, and it shatters the previous record of -68°C (-90.4°F) set in 1933! Hat-tip DirkH.

There’s been a lot of confusion over the last couple of days concerning a record low temperature allegedly just recorded in Siberia.

It appears that the record was actually set on February 19, in Oymyakon, Siberia.

News website borlife.de/ reports here. It writes near the end:

Oymyakon: Coldest Town in the World – 71 ° Celsius

It was just a few days ago that Oymyakon became famous. With -71° Celsius, it recorded a new record cold temperature, which until then had been unique to 2 villages. Until then the record of -68°C had to be shared with the town of Werchojansk – however, this is now history.”

This Italian site also reports that the new record was just set days ago, on February 19, smashing to pieces the old record of -68°C set in 1933, 80 years ago:

Un nuovo record di freddo è stato stabilito nella giornata di oggi in Siberia. Nella città di Oymyakon è stato raggiunto l’incredibile valore di -71°C! Battuto il precedente record di -68°C che resisteva ormai dal lontano 1933. Tutta la Siberia e la Russia stanno sperimentado una fase di gelo intenso, con -50°C toccati anche nella regione di Dzalinda.”

My Italian isn”t the best, but I’d translate that as follows:

A new record cold was recorded today in Siberia. In the town of Oymyakon the incredible value of -71.2°C was reached. It beat the previous record of -68° C that which stood since 1933. All of Siberia and Russia are in a phase of extreme frost. The area of Dzalinda is hit with -50°C.”

Italian readers may want to improve that translation for me.

Die Welt kept it off the front page, confirmed the temperature reading, but doesn’t call it a “record”, read here.

 

 

12 responses to “Northern Hemisphere Sets New, All-Time Record Cold Temperature: -96.1°F In Oymyakon Siberia”

  1. Casper

    “Oymyakon: Coldest Town in the World – 71 ° Celsius”

    Tomtor village was even colder (-71,2°C). It is about 30 kilometers (19 mi) northwest of Oymyakon.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomtor,_Oymyakonsky_District,_Sakha_Republic

  2. Juergen Uhlemann

    I found two Russian pages. The text below the links is from Google translate.

    http://publicpost.ru/theme/id/3284/oymyakon/
    “Oymyakon village – the coldest spot on the planet. The other day there was cold as minus 71 degrees – this is the lowest temperature ever recorded measurements.”

    http://kratko-news.com/2013/02/20/v-sibiri-poxolodalo-do-71/
    “On Monday, February 18 in the Russian extreme cold – Oymyakon – was recorded the lowest temperature ever recorded measuring devices – minus 71 degrees. It is 3 degrees below the previous record in 1993 – minus 68.”

    I also found something interesting. “Winters In Western Siberia Will Become Colder”
    http://russiatime.ru/novosti-rossii/zimy-na-territorii-zapadnoj-sibiri-budut-stanovitsya-vse-bolee-xolodnymi.html
    “According to the forecast of researchers from the Institute of monitoring of climatic and ecological systems, following three years of winter in western Siberia will become colder. In 2015, the average February temperature may drop nizhu minus 20 degrees. It is noted that in 1980, the average February temperature was minus 20 degrees, and then began to grow. In 1995, the average temperature for February was minus 16 degrees, and then began to decline. It is expected that the frost in 2015 will be stronger than in 1980.

    This trend was confirmed by the Tomsk meteorologists. According to them, in 1995, was recorded the warmest winter, and then began a steady process of cooling.”

    Colder since 1995 means no warming for 17 years. Looks familiar!

  3. glenncz

    WE have a big problem here for the future of our planet. Record N. Hemisphere low, and Anarctice ice area is almost twice as big as on the same day 20 years ago (1993). Must be all of that warm water which makes the ice freeze easier.
    http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/timeseries.south.anom.1979-2008
    Ice today – 2.4 sq km’s
    Ice 2/23/93 – 1.3 sq km’s.

    Just think of how much farther those cute Emporer penguins are going to have to crawl to get to their breeding grounds. How are the daddy’s going to be able to make the trip out and back to feed momma and the babies? Maybe we should send ice breakers down there.
    (hats off to S Goddard for this find)

  4. ES

    Weather Underground shows the coldest it’s been is -56 in both January and February, which is normal for that place.

    http://espanol.wunderground.com/history/station/24688/2013/2/24/MonthlyHistory.html?req_city=NA&req_state=NA&req_statename=NA

    The story from the UK met office is on the internet but that was from 1933.

    http://www.thedailyobserver.ca/2013/02/23/oymyakon-the-coldest-village-on-earth

  5. Ric Werme

    For anyone who needed a reminder about the coldest temp recorded in Antarctica (like me) it’s -89.2°C (-129°F) at Vostok on 21 July 1983 at 3420m (11220 ft).

  6. All-Time Cold Record: More Evidence Of Global Warming Crisis | The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF)

    […] Full story […]

  7. glenncz

    oops, those antarctic sea ice numbers were “anomalies”, not total sq km.

  8. Richard de Lacy

    This seems to be the result of some confusion, probably the result of translation problems.

    This link (and the Russian Wiki page on Oymyakon) claims that a record low temperature was recorded in the Far Eastern (NOT Siberia, while I’m being pedantic) town in 1926.
    http://geo.1september.ru/articlef.php?ID=200404801
    I don’t want to add to the confusion by attempting a translation, but thankfully it includes a photograph of a monument to a temperature of -71.2C in 1926.

    For the record, I personally believe that CAGW is a load of anti-science nonsense, but this seems to be a non-story.

  9. It’s not a “warm snow” | Musings from the Chiefio
  10. F. Guimaraes

    Are you really expecting an official confirmation of a story that eveyone on the internet is saying is pointing towards a failure of the GW hoax?

    Well, simply put: it won’t happen, but it doesn’t mean that the record didn’t happen. Let’s review some recent facts: Russia has had a very strong 2012/2013 winter with record snowfalls and cold weather (even for them)

    http://rt.com/news/winter-snow-russia-weather-275/

    http://rt.com/news/snowiest-moscow-winter-century-470/

    and similiarly in other countries in Europe, China, etc. and this is *not* the first year with cold winter recently. Therefore, the possibility of a record “colder temperature of all time” in these circumstances seems rather natural and even expectable to some extent.
    Notice that this is happening not only in Asia: the Antarctic icecap is steadly growing since records began (~1979) and setting record after record (positive anomaly for 14 months straight, etc.) and Alaska is cooling too:

    “In the first decade since 2000, the 49th state cooled 2.4 degrees Fahrenheit.”
    http://iceagenow.info/2013/01/forget-global-warming-alaska-headed-ice-age/

    But in the present state of “climate war” that we’re living and political interference in everything related to climate, I really would *not* expect any “official confirmation” of important news that go against the official agenda (worldwide).

  11. Niklaus

    What does the long term data show for average temperature trends in Oymyakon?

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