The Siberian city of Yakutsk has been hit by a particularly intense cold snap. After surpassing the -50°C mark a few days ago, mercury fell below -60°C this time.
It hadn’t been this cold in more than 20 years. The weather station in the Russian city of Yakutsk, known for having the title of “the coldest city in the world”, recorded a particularly low temperature: -62.7 °C, a temperature more than 20 degrees below -40 °C on average Month of January which is also the coldest month of the year in the city.
This new record comes just two days after mercury has already dropped to -50C, reports CNN. This cold snap, unusual even for Yakutsk, the capital of the Sakha Republic in eastern Siberia, coincides with temperatures that have recently cooled across much of Siberia.
“You Can’t Wrestle”
If residents are used to dressing up for much of the year, current temperatures are forcing them to redouble their precautions in the face of a cold that poses a constant threat, especially frostbite.
“You can’t fight. You either adapt and dress appropriately, or you suffer,” says a passerby, dressed in two scarves and layers of gloves, hats and hoods.
“You have to dress warmly. With layers, like a cabbage,” explains a local resident.
Visibility on the streets is also severely impaired by a dense “ice fog” that covers the entire city in winter. A phenomenon that is due to the fact that “the air is so cold that the warm air from houses, people and cars cannot rise” and the steam therefore sticks to the ground, according to the Northeastern Federal University in Yakutsk.
The university also states in a note to these students, some of whom are unfamiliar with Siberian temperatures, that “walking the streets in winter when the temperature is below -40C is not recommended.”
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A city used to extreme episodes
Yakutsk had already been in the spotlight in June 2022, when the city and its region were engulfed in thick smoke related to the fires that periodically ravage Siberia in the summer due to global warming.
In addition to its extremely low local temperatures, Yakutsk is known for being one of the largest cities (population 355,500 according to CNN) located on permafrost or permafrost zones, those perpetually frozen soils that contain significant carbon reserves.
Original article published on BFMTV.com
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