Verkhoyansk or Oymyakon? Where is the pole of the cold of the Northern Hemisphere?

The cold pole of the Northern Hemisphere is located in a zone of sharply continental climate. For the right to be so called since the beginning of the twentieth century, the city of Verkhoyansk and Oimyakon village, part of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) , are arguing . Recently, the village of Tomtor, located 20 km from the village of Oimyakon, joined the dispute.

Extreme Yakutia: an overview

The geographic location of the republic (north and south of the Arctic Circle - 66 ° 33'44 ") and its remoteness from warm currents (the Gulf Stream) explains the presence of low temperatures, and therefore the cold pole of the Northern Hemisphere is located exactly there. The extreme mainland point of the republic is located at Cape Nordvik (74 ° N), the southern one is the border with the Amur Region along the Stanovoy Ridge (55 ° N).

The Republic of Sakha (or the Sakha Republic in Yakutia) is the largest administrative and territorial entity in Russia and the world, and accounts for almost a fifth of the Russian Federation (Yakutia - 3.1 million km², Russia - more than 17.1 million km² ).

Forty per cent of the territory of the republic is located in the Arctic, that is, beyond the Arctic Circle.

Yakutia is 25% of diamonds mined in the world, and the most fashionable women of the world, who are the most wealthy and, accordingly, educated in these matters, prefer to wear jewelry.

The main population of the republic is the Yakuts (almost 46%), Russians (almost 42%), Ukrainians (about 4%), Evenki (2%), Even (slightly more than 1%). The total population is just under one million people.

The climate of the republic, where there is a pole of cold in the Northern Hemisphere

Only extreme weather conditions can explain why the cold pole is in Yakutia. The sharply continental climate of the south of the republic passes into the subarctic, then to the Arctic on the coast of the Arctic Ocean.

Relative softness of winter temperature (-35 ...- 25 ° C), winds, humidity of the northern coast contrast sharply with the continental conditions of Yakutia's territories, located near the Arctic Circle and to the south. Winter temperatures of this part fluctuate mainly in the range -55 ...- 35 ° C, and the snow cover is small - only thirty centimeters. Such phenomenon as frosty fog (from small crystals), occurs in the continental part of the Sakha Republic.

The coldest areas are those near Verkhoyansk, and Oimyakon, where temperatures can drop to -70 ° C. Summer same thermometer (though for a short time) can rise to +30 ° C. Such annual fluctuations of temperatures (one hundred degrees) were not observed at any other point of the Earth.

Verkhoyansk is the officially recognized pole of cold in the Northern Hemisphere

Verkhoyanskaya (in Yakutsk) is one of the northernmost (beyond the polar circle) and the smallest in the number of cities in Russia (in third place from the end): there live only 1150 people. You can get there first: by plane from Moscow to Yakutsk, then by local airlines through the Lena River and the Verkhoyansky Range to the Batagay settlement (this is the center of the Verkhoyansky ulus), then on the primer to Verkhoyansk. There is no aerodrome in the city, or rather, it does not work - it was closed when the USSR collapsed.

Life in the city is complex: seven months a year (from October to April) winter, the thermometer drops to a minus 67 degrees Celsius.

In the spring, snow begins to melt, and if someone does not store ice from the lakes (there are a lot of them here), then there will be nothing to drink-the melted water is muddy, but the fishing is excellent.
Verkhoyansk began its history as a Cossack settlement, then became the place of exile of many political prisoners. One of them, SF Kovalik, in 1885, on the fifteenth of January, registered (recorded in the observations journal of the meteorological station) the minimum air temperature of -67.1 ° C. And in 1892, an even lower temperature was noted: -67.8 ° C. In 2005, in honor of registering the lowest temperature in the Northern Hemisphere, the city authorities erected a memorial plaque.

Verkhoyansk Museum of Local Lore "The Pole of Cold"

Since 1957, at school (she is alone in the city), they began to collect exhibits on the history of the region. On this basis today there is a local history museum. The exposition of the museum - "The Pole of Cold in the Northern Hemisphere of Russia" - has historical materials about the unique aeromedrometeorological station that is open in Verkhoyansk.

The museum is also interesting for showing items of the cultural heritage of the Verkhoyansk Yakuts, and the old dwelling - yurt - is installed next to the main complex.

Oymyakon: why tourists go there

At the official name - the pole of cold in the Northern Hemisphere - Oimyakon aspires. The village is located below the Arctic Circle, but the winters there are much more severe than the Verkhoyansk. The area of Oymyakon is located in a mountain basin, where cold air descends at night and stagnates there, which explains the position of the North Pole's cold pole, though not officially recognized. Meteorological observations are conducted not in the village of Oimyakon, but at the airport with the same name (40 km from the village and 2 km from the village of Tomtor).

As a pole of the cold of the Northern Hemisphere, Oimyakon is mastered by tourists much more efficiently than Verkhoyansk: the airport contributes to the rapid achievement of the goal.
In the village of Tomtor (where the writer V.Shalamov spent the last two years of exile), a tourist gathering is held annually, and in the Oymyakon itself, Santa Claus gathers for the gathering every year.

Schools close in winter if the temperature drops to -56 ° C.

The name Oymyakon in translation means "non-freezing water" - whether in jest, or in honor of a local hot spring.

Scientists have not yet decided which settlement should be called the pole of the cold of the Northern Hemisphere: either Oymyakon, or Tomtor, or Verkhoyansk.