Environment

Yakutia is promised vainly to experience -68°C/-90.4°F

by bolotbootur | December 22, 2008 at 11:54 pm

334 views | 10 Recommendations | 7 comments

On Dec 22 RIA Novosti informed:

Temperatures in the northeast Siberian republic of Yakutia could plummet to minus 68 degrees Celsius (-90.4 Fahrenheit) this week, the local meteorological service said on Monday.

"In the next few days we expect a cold spell in the towns of Verkhoyansk and Oymyakon, with weather likely to drop to minus 64-68 degrees Celsius (minus 83.2-90.4 Fahrenheit)," a spokesman said.

In the town of Oymyakon, dubbed the North Pole of cold, or the place where the lowest-ever temperature in the Northern hemisphere has been recorded, temperatures fell to -60 degrees Celsius (-76 Fahrenheit) overnight.

In the town of Verkhoyansk, located some 600 km (372 miles) from Oymyakon and also noted for its exceptionally cold winters, the temperatures hit -55 degrees Celsius (-67 Fahrenheit) on Sunday night.

More freezing weather, as well as fog and blizzards are expected in Yakutia this week, the spokesman said adding that the extremely cold weather was due to an influx of a cold polar air mass.

// Dec. 22, 2008

Resource: http://en.rian.ru/russia/20081222/119086407.html

A LOCAL'S COMMENT:

This breaking news sounds unfeasable. Online weather forecasts either international or national display another figures for the above-mentioned locations, from -33°C/-27.4°F down to -46°C/-50.8°F for the following week. Rise in temperature is promised instead.

Btw, -40°C/-40°F and -55°C/-67°F are considered to be common in these places for December and January. Cold is extreme to outsiders anyway.

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Amy Judd

at 11:19 on December 23rd, 2008

I can't even imagine how cold that is - that is insane.

On a side note, do you know about our highlight tool? It helps you to quote from outside sources.

bolotbootur

at 16:24 on December 23rd, 2008

That's not insane. That's reality :)

Thanks for giving me clue of the highlight tool. I am a new guy here, so I'll try to use it.

Fairbanks

at 11:27 on December 23rd, 2008

-85 f is dangerous enough to consider staying home. We could be -30 to -40 by the weekend, and the best part is that it might not be a cold snap but could hang around for weeks.

bolotbootur

at 16:29 on December 23rd, 2008

Oh, Fairbanks! Fairbanks and Yakutsk are twin cities, by the way.

Our kids have school off, when it is below -48C/-54.4F.
Right. If -85F, we will, certainly, stay home.

Rachel Nixon

at 11:31 on December 23rd, 2008

Thanks for posting - I wrote a post on this story yesterday. It's good to have a local perspective - it sounds like you disagree with the reports. Do let us know how cold it gets - or doesn't get!

bolotbootur

at 16:35 on December 23rd, 2008

Hello, Rachel. Thanks for giving me the link to NowPublic. Good service. Yup, I disagree with the report. Media is frighting us, locals, just in vain. Even to us -68C seems unreal. We had such temperatures, but decades ago. Nowadays, if approx. -56-59, we say Ye, it can happen often. If we are said of -68C, we start scratching our heads :)