Incredible Facts

Welcome to Oymyakon - the coldest village on Earth, where average temperature in January is -50 C, and eyelashes local residents freeze as soon as they go outside.

Oymyakon is best known as one of the "Cold Poles" on Earth.

If we take into account some parameters, then we can say that the Oymyakon Valley is the most severe settlement on Earth.


Temperature in Oymyakon

Winter 2017-2018 turned out to be so severe that the new electronic thermometer broke as soon as it registered - 62 degrees Celsius.


The official weather station at the Pole of Cold recorded -59 degrees, but locals say that according to their thermometers, the temperature dropped to -67 C, which is 1 degree higher allowable temperature for a place with a permanent population.

A digital thermometer in Oymyakon was installed in 2017 to help attract tourists, but a record low temperature caused it to fail.

Oymyakon on the map

1. Today, about 500 people live in the village. In the 1920s and 1930s, reindeer herders stopped here so that their herd could drink water from thermal spring. Hence the name of the village, which is translated as "water that does not freeze."


2. In 1933, a temperature of -67.7 C was recorded, which is still the lowest temperature in the northern hemisphere. Below the temperature dropped only in Antarctica, but there is no permanent population.


3. Daily problems that locals face include the following: freezing paste in the pen, freezing glasses that then stick to the face, and fast draining of batteries and accumulators.


4. It is said that the locals do not even turn off their cars, as it will be impossible to bring them in. Truckers do work for several months without turning off the engine. However, sometimes even this does not save, because after a 4-hour parking, the car simply freezes, and its wheels become stone.


5. Average duration life in this village is 55 years old, and most of all the residents are afraid of the funeral. The fact is that the dead are very difficult to bury due to the fact that the earth is as hard as stone. To soften it, they first kindle a fire, after which the hot coals are pushed aside and a small hole is dug. This process is repeated for several days until a hole is deep enough for the coffin.


6. To get to Oymyakon from Moscow, you need to fly to Yakutsk for 6 hours, then drive another 1,000 km along a snowy highway. But in the summer you can try to fly to the village by plane, but you will have to land at your own peril and risk, since the airport is old, there is an abandoned kindergarten nearby, and all this is surrounded by a large unplowed field, on which planes land.

Oymyakon - the pole of cold


7. Children are wrapped up here so that they are not able to move independently. Here is one example:

* First they put on warm underwear, and woolen pants on top, after which they pull on wadded, thicker pants.

* Knitted socks and felt boots must be worn on the legs.

* After this, the child is wrapped in a fur coat, first one hat is put on the head, and another hat is put on top.

* Bunny mittens are put on the child’s hands, and his face is very tightly tied with a scarf so that only eyebrows and eyes remain visible.

* A fur coat is put on the stove, which is then laid on a sled, the child is carried out in their arms, put on a sled and taken to a kindergarten.

8. In winter, it is very dreary here, since the day lasts only 4 hours, while people still stay in their homes and warm themselves by the stove.


9. You can go to school until the temperature drops to -60 degrees. At the same time, schoolchildren sit in a coat, and all together warm pens with their breath so that they can write with them.


10. All local clothes are made from natural fur, since everything artificial just breaks in the cold. High boots are put on the legs, which are made from the skin of the lower part of the deer leg. It is better that the fur coat reaches the shoes, because if it is shorter, then you can seriously freeze your lower leg and knees. Only a hat made of mink, fox or fox is put on the head.


Oymyakon, Russia

11. The most favorite holiday of all local residents is the holiday of the North. Specially on this day, three very important and long-awaited guests come to Oymyakon at once - Santa Claus from Veliky Ustyug, Santa Claus straight from Lapland, as well as the Yakut Santa Claus Chiskhan, who is considered the keeper of the cold.


12. All foreigners are shocked by what they see. Many do not know what felt boots are, and to help them, the locals hang signs "right" and "left" on each felt boot.


13. Women here, like all women in the world, want to look good. Therefore, even at a temperature of -60 C, some wear stockings, walk in stilettos and in a short skirt. In this case, of course, a very long fur coat is put on top.


14. Residents do not need refrigerators, as local residents simply keep fresh-frozen fish, butter, meat and berries on the veranda of their house.


15. All villagers know about the rules of living at very low temperatures. One of them says that a person is able to withstand low temperatures if he is not afraid of them, or rather, is not afraid to freeze. According to scientists, a panic fear of freezing speeds up the process of freezing, and if a person has given himself a clear setting “I’m not cold!”, then such psychological technique significantly increases the survival time in the cold.

The first thing that comes to the mind of a person who knows at least a little about Oymyakon is a terrible cold, standing here almost all year round and it is not for nothing that the city received its title as the unofficial Pole of Cold. Officially registered minimum temperature-69.6 degrees, but there are other, not official data. For example, in 1938, the temperature was -77.8 degrees, but these values ​​\u200b\u200bare not included in the official chronicles. But the winter of the 38th was not the coldest, and in 1916 the temperature dropped to -82 degrees, which is only 7 degrees below the official record, which was recorded at Vostok Station, located in Antarctica. But if we take into account the fact that the station is located at an altitude of 3.5 km above sea level, then Oymyakon remains the coldest place. This village also has its competitor in Yakutia - Verkhoyansk, which officially owns the status of the pole of cold, but in Verkhoyansk the officially registered temperature is -69.8 and there are no unofficial data on lower temperatures.

interesting and mean annual temperature in the village. From mid-November to mid-March, the weather here rarely exceeds -40 degrees and fifty degrees of frost is normal for Oymyakon. And if you take into account the fact that during these months the polar winter comes and it becomes a little light only at lunchtime, then this place seems as if from another planet. In summer, the temperature stays around 10-15 degrees, but even here there are records and in 2010 the temperature rose to 35 degrees Celsius, and all day long the sun was shining, because it was polar summer outside.

You will never guess how Oymyakon is translated from Evenk, but it is translated very simply - Non-freezing water. Yes, it is here, in cold weather at -50, that there are rivers and lakes where water boils and this has a simple explanation: the soil in these parts freezes to a depth of one and a half kilometers, and when underground lakes and groundwater begin to freeze, they naturally increase in volume and literally push unfrozen water to the surface.

Despite the fact that the temperature here is extremely low, people first settled here precisely because they found food for livestock here. They graze here by no means deer, but small tundra horses, which even in winter find their food perfectly, digging grass from under the snow. Oymyakonye is located in a large valley surrounded by mountains, the height of which reaches 2 km and is a tundra-steppe, and it is thanks to this that such a climate has formed here, thanks to which horses find their livelihood. Also, thanks to the surrounding mountains, the weather here is always dry and sunny.

Did you know that Yakutia is still in Soviet years ranked 4th in the country in terms of the average number of centenarians? But this is not an invention, and not only the Caucasian longevity, but also the Northern, Yakut one should be a legend. Few people could have been surprised here before the centennial anniversary, but scientists have not conducted research in this area, and it is unequivocal to say that it is precisely because of the cold that many people live here for a very long time. And people live here in an ideal ecology: fresh air, crystal pure water, viruses and bacteria simply do not survive in such a cold, and they feed on local exclusively ecological products, and only about bad habits and totally worth forgetting. But there are also disadvantages in the form of the lack of many vitamins and minerals in local food. However, despite longevity, people here look older than they really are, the reason for this is not only the cold, but also the dry and harsh climate, as well as the lack of sun.


Life in Oymyakon is a real test all year round and life here is not the same as on big land. The most important and backbone in the city is Electricity, because if it is not available for at least a week, then the entire infrastructure in the village will simply freeze and it will have to be changed. For example, pipes carrying water to buildings are heated using special cables laid along the pipe and protected by a heat-retaining casing. If suddenly, for some reason, there is no electricity for a long time, then the pipes will freeze and after the water supply they will simply burst without preheating, and it will be possible to repair them only in the summer.

A separate story is cars that do not turn off here all winter, because if you turn it off for at least 2 hours, then it will be possible to start it in March at best. In the same way, the wheels, in case of downtime for more than 4 hours, even with the engine turned on, simply turn into stones, moreover, they are oval in shape. On such wheels you can not slow down, and if you drive fast, they will simply crumble. There is no question of foreign cars here in winter at all, and only our cars survive here. When the temperature approaches -50 degrees, then no heating can cope and really warm up only small rooms, and for example, schoolchildren sit in the classroom in a coat, and this is in the order of things.

Do you know why Siberians do not freeze in severe frosts? No, not because Siberians are used to the cold, but because they dress warmly. Indeed, clothing here is treated somewhat differently than on the mainland. The main thing is not beauty, but how warm it is at -55 degrees. Locals hide everything they can from the frost, while it is advisable to leave only their eyes uncovered. Those who are older are already used to it, but dressing children is a whole sacrament, and a walk is sledding, because a well-dressed little one simply cannot move from the amount of clothes on it.

Despite all the seeming romance of Oymyakon, life here is terribly hard and most people look much older than they really are and retire after 15 years of work, i.e. considering the fact that with higher education there is practically nowhere to work, then by the age of 40, or even by 35, the locals no longer retire.


Oymyakon is currently small village with a population of just over 500 people. Despite its remoteness, there is life in the city, and how else can it be in a city where gold is mined. best times of course, behind and left somewhere in the USSR, and people are slowly dispersing in all directions, because it’s not easy to live in such conditions. It is only in Russia that you can mine gold and at the same time live very hard.

Although, of course, there is money here and the average salary is not small, higher than even the average for Moscow, but the prices are 5-10 times higher than in other regions. And in the days of the USSR, for example, there was the best silver fox breeding farm here, with the warmest fur in the world, because the animals grew up in terrible frosts. There were also ordinary farms with cows and chickens, and other enterprises, research stations, but now there is almost nothing left, only gold mining and a farm for the needs of the inhabitants.

How to get there

Despite its location, regular excursions and tours are held here, and this is the only way to get to this region. It’s better not to risk it yourself, it’s too dangerous, except in the summer you can try to go on your own. A trip to Oymyakon in winter can be easily compared to a flight to Mars.


The final post about the January trip of my friend Vitalik. This is how it happens, at first he didn’t want to write, and then he signed for several posts :) I read and understand that such people need to blog, it’s too fluent to write. But this is not surprising, they are all linguists.

During my two days at the Pole of Cold, I learned something remarkable from the life of ordinary Oymyakonians. As a result, the idea arose to arrange it in the form of a small selection of 33 facts. Here's what happened in the end.

1. Oymyakon in Yakutia is called the whole area, which includes several settlements, including the village of the same name. The center of the district is the village of Tomtor, where there is an airport and a meteorological station, where the minimum temperature of -71.2°C was recorded. Here you can have a look.

2. In Oymyakon itself (the village), which is located 40 km north of Tomtor, there has never been a weather station, but a memorial stele was installed there for decency.

3. Outwardly, the villages of the Oymyakon Valley differ little from those familiar to us somewhere in the Volga region. It turns out that the technology of a simple Russian hut can easily withstand extreme frosts.

4. Cars do drive with double glazing. Moreover, if a double package is immediately placed on the windshield, then this is impossible with the side ones, so the second glass is glued to ordinary adhesive tape. Otherwise, the person sitting next to him will have the risk of frostbite on half of his face.

5. Cars are turned off at night, but there are special heated garages for them, where the temperature does not drop much below zero, so starting is not a problem.

6. At temperatures below minus 56 (this is considered cold here), the equipment starts to behave strangely, and it is not recommended to travel far without unnecessary need.

7. If you still had to go in such a cold, then the consumption of gasoline is doubled. In addition, if you stop on the road, the tires begin to deform under the weight of the car, and at first you have to drive slowly and as if over bumps. You also have to carry a complete set of spare parts with you, enough to fix a motor that has stalled on the road.

8. Children lower grades stop going to school at temperatures below -52, seniors - at minus 58. This is due to the same risk of equipment failure, because. many children get to school by bus.

9. In some houses, for example, in the village of Kuidusun, where I stayed, there is a central water supply. However, only hot water(the cold one would simply freeze in the pipes), and taking a shower for those who had hot water turned off at home should be fun: you need to carry buckets cold water and dilute with hot from the tap - the opposite is true.

10. By the way, many have a toilet in the yard. It has light, but no heating, and this is considered the norm. I probably won’t share my feelings from visiting such a place =) However, they try to build new houses in a familiar, not extreme format.

11. The cost of firewood for heating a 120 m2 house + sauna + garage per season (which lasts 8 months here) is about 50 tr. Taking into account the fact that this also provides hot water, it comes out even cheaper than in Moscow.

12. "Oymyakon" in Even language means "non-freezing water". Indeed, where is she still not to freeze. It's all about the warm springs that gush out of the ground and form streams on the surface. They completely freeze only by March. The nature around them is exceptionally beautiful.

13. People live by hunting (for themselves) and animal husbandry (for selling and getting cash). Horses are bred for meat, there is also a large reindeer farm. Pictured is a barn.

14. The Yakut horse is a unique beast. She does not need a barn, she grazes in the open air in any weather, she also gets her own food, picking the frozen ground with her hoof. It should be fed only so that it does not go far from the owners.

15. Farmers say that this horse is “programmed” to look for special nutritional herbs, so its meat contains such a complex of vitamins that allows a person to fully eat without eating vegetables and fruits.

16. Horse meat is considered coarse meat by the locals. Foal is held in high esteem, and in the Yakut restaurant you will be served exactly it, and not horse meat.

17. A foal at the age of 6-7 months is slaughtered, blindfolded and struck with a hammer.

18. I can’t check on vitamins, but a bottle of koumiss from this horse’s milk makes you forget about hunger for a long time. Its taste is exceptionally tart, and resembles a dense strong ale.

19. The height of the hunting season falls on the most severe frost, because. hunting is prohibited in spring - during this season, animals give birth, and in summer bears compete (which, however, does not really stop the locals, they only complain that it is forbidden to shoot bears, and if necessary, then they will have to prove it).

20. Despite the attachment to nature, the locals are very knowledgeable in information technology(true, Mobile Internet only available from MTS). For example, the driver Max, who took me from Ust-Nera to Tomtor, quit his job with his wife, they are now working on network marketing- manage the sales of some Tibetan dietary supplements.

21. Everyone, including 70-year-old pensioners, has a WhatsApp account with photos.

22. WhatsApp allows you to help out the driver or hunter in case of problems: for example, if he did not return at the agreed time and did not get in touch, the wife makes an alert through the group, and everyone who is in touch helps organize a search and rescue operation.

23. Debt in the store can be paid by transfer from card to card.

24. In the village of Tomtor, there is a cafe for the whole region (at least they go there with family and friends, like in a cafe). You can’t eat foal meat there, but you can have French fries and nuggets - for the locals this is a delicacy. Upon learning that I was from Moscow, they persistently tried to find out if they had the right potato.

25. Of the power structures in the entire Oymyakon Valley, only in Tomtor there is a district police officer and an investigator. In the rest of the villages, according to the locals, anarchy, banditry and drunken showdowns reign.

26. There is one guy in Oymyakon, I don’t remember his name. Once, in a drunken fight, he was knocked out right on the street and left. He woke up 15 minutes later, came home, fell asleep. The result - amputation of almost all frostbitten fingers. Works now as a driver, by the way.

27. There is a local history museum in Tomtor. In it, you can twist almost all the exhibits in your hands, including the carbine of 1764. A visit to the museum is free, but for this you must first find its owner. .

28. Oymyakonye is famous for its Gulag camps, of which there were 29 in one area. They say that in order to counteract escapes, the NKVD officers promised local hunters for each fugitive hand brought a bag of sugar or flour (the brush was needed to verify fingerprints). The scheme worked. Moreover, the especially cunning first caught the fugitives, forced them to work for themselves for some time, and only then killed them: well, what, a bag of sugar is not superfluous.

29. In addition to local history, there is a museum of the Gulag, as the locals call it. It was assembled by a simple rural teacher and is located in the school building. I wrote a little more about it

Photo: Amos Chapple

Oymyakon is the pole of cold, one of the harshest places on earth where people constantly live and work. Children go to school at -50 °C, streams do not freeze even at -70 °C, and on the street you can meet women in nylon stockings. "My Planet" has collected facts and opinions of local residents about this unique Russian region, which is becoming increasingly popular with tourists.

Population

In the Yakut village of Oymyakon, 512 people live (according to 2012 data). Mostly people are engaged in cattle breeding, reindeer herding, fishing. In summer, residents go for haymaking in the so-called letniki. There is civilization in Oymyakon: there is both the Internet and cellular, and the airport, which was created during the Second World War. There are a school, a hospital, a club, a kindergarten, a music school, a library, a bakery, a gas station, a gym and shops. Prices are higher than in Moscow: for example, a loaf of bread costs 50 rubles.

Days and nights

Photo: Amos Chapple

The duration of the short day in December - three hours. But in the summer there are white nights - light around the clock. Summer is characterized by a large temperature difference: during the day it can be +30 ° C, and at night - below zero.

standing cold

Photo: Dmitry Chistoprudov

The village is located at an altitude of 741 m above sea level in a hollow where cold air flows in winter. There is no wind, but, according to the locals, the stagnant cold penetrates through and through.

The temperature minimum, according to various measurements, ranges from -77.8 to -82 ° C. Scientists and meteorologists are constantly arguing about which locality Yakutia is considered the main north pole cold: Oymyakon or Verkhoyansk. According to the latest data, the absolute annual minimums in Oymyakon are 3.5 °C lower than in Verkhoyansk.

The temperature difference in summer and winter reaches 104 ° C - according to this indicator, Oymyakon occupies one of the first places in the world. +34.6 °C - the most heat recorded in the summer of 2010.

There is snow in Oymyakon from 213 to 229 days a year.

Children

Small children are dressed according to the principle of cabbage, leaving only their eyes open, you can only walk on a sled, since the baby is unlikely to be able to walk independently in such uniforms. Training in primary school canceled at -52 °C. At -56 ° C, the whole school does not study. Children are looking forward to the frosts so that they can spend the whole short polar day outdoors, riding down the slides.

Cloth

Photo: Amos Chapple

Adults dress in fur coats, down jackets, fur hats, high fur boots from deerskin, put on two or three pairs of tights, pants and socks. A hat to the forehead and a scarf to the bridge of the nose save from frostbite of the face and nose. But cases of frostbite still happen. However, nothing will change the female nature: there were cases when women at -50 ° C put on nylon tights under a fur coat and managed not to freeze.

Cars

Photo: Olga Vodopyanova

Cars are parked in heated garages, before leaving the driver warms up the engine for 10-15 minutes. If there is no garage, then the engine is not turned off, but, as they say in Yakutia, they rumble. Additional stoves are installed in the cabs of the vehicles, arctic diesel fuel is used (diesel oil is mixed with kerosene). Many drivers make a special home-made pipe for heating fuel. Yakut truckers do not turn off their engines for months.

Nature

Beautiful in Oymyakon unique nature: there are streams that do not freeze in 70-degree frost, and ice that does not melt in 30-degree heat. AT recent times tourism is very developed: foreigners come and Russian travelers from all over the country. Among the local attractions are museums, Gulag camps, full of secrets and legends Moltan rock and Labynkyr lake and, of course, the bitter frost itself. In the spring, the festival "Oymyakon - the Pole of Cold" is held annually, which attracts Santa Clauses from all over the world. Tourists are advised to dress very warmly: wadded pants, a pair of hats, fur sweaters, high boots made of deer wool and a scarf with which you can wrap your face will not interfere.

Animals

Of all animals, only dogs, horses and reindeer can endure the Oymyakon cold. A cow can only be let out of a warm barn at -30 ° C, putting on a special bra on the udder so that it does not freeze. Cats are not allowed outside in winter, but if the animal jumps out on its own, frostbite is guaranteed. On very cold days, the owners let the dogs into the house or in the garage, but the rest of the time they live on the street.

special effects

The locals claim that:

- in severe frosts (-65 ° C), if metal hits metal hard, sparks are cut out, because of this it is very dangerous to use gas stations;

- vodka freezes in the cold, just like mercury thermometers;

- the police do not have batons - in the cold they harden and burst on impact, like glass;

- a fish taken out of the water in the cold becomes glassy in five minutes;

Locals take washed clothes outside to freeze. In a minute it rises a stake. They are collected after two hours very carefully, otherwise you can break the pillowcase or tear off the collar of the shirt.

Because of the permafrost, it is very difficult to dig graves. People pray that loved ones do not die in winter.

Evgenia Zibinskaya, originally from the neighboring village of Nelkan, Oymyakonsky District, abolished in 2008

Until 1997, I lived in the village of Nelkan. Our village was surrounded by a ring of mountains, because of which we had no wind and the cold was tolerated quite easily. But in Yakutsk -30 ° C is a real torture because of the winds constantly blowing, as if from all directions at the same time.

The polar day is very short. Walking, we captured a piece of the polar night - so children roaming around in pitch darkness were not uncommon. I still have no fear of night walks.

The main northern device is deer fur. Fur reindeer unique: each villus is a hollow tube filled with air. Thanks to such an air cushion, the fur retains heat very well.

We had a gold mine, so the main activity of its inhabitants was focused on this, the rest provided the infrastructure. Gold, by the way, could be found right in the river (I'm not talking about a trifle, which is enough in the Urals, but about quite large nuggets), but it was of no interest to the inhabitants, because if someone decided to hand it over to the state, then paperwork would be more than enough, and taking it out, you know, was unrealistic.
Coordinates The head of administration

Rosalia Petrovna Kondakova

Center height Climate type Population Timezone Telephone code Postcode car code OKATO code

Oymyakon is best known as one of the "Cold Poles" on the planet, according to a number of parameters, the Oymyakon Valley is the most severe place on Earth, where the permanent population lives.

At the Antarctic station "Vostok" the most low temperature on Earth (-89.2 °C), however, the station is located at an altitude of 3488 m above sea level, and if both temperatures are adjusted to sea level, then Oymyakon will be recognized as the absolute champion. According to unofficial data, on the night of January 5-6, 1916, the temperature in the village dropped to -82 Celsius, which is only 7.2 higher than the absolute minimum on the planet, which was recorded 67.5 years later, on 21.07. 1983 at the Soviet polar station "Vostok". Then the absolute minimum at the same station was -88.3, ​​that is, in Oymyakon it was only 6.3 higher. The average annual temperature in Oymyakon is -22.1 Celsius, these are the coldest averages in the Northern Hemisphere of the Earth. For comparison, the average annual temperatures at Vostok station are -55.6 C, since the climate there is less sharply continental (due to the polar night), and the altitude is 3488 meters above sea level, which is 2747 meters higher than in Oymyakon. Even in the two most predominant warm months in the year-June and July, the temperature in the village can drop to -9.7 and -9.3 degrees, respectively. The absolute maximum in Oymyakon is 34.6 C. Among the 11 minimums on Earth from -65 degrees to the minimum, Oymyakon ranks third and fourth. Below is a list of these temperatures.

1) -89.6 station "Vostok", Antarctica

2) -88.3 station "Vostok", Antarctica

3) -82.8 Verkhoyansk, Russia

4) -82.0 Oymyakon, Russia

5) -77.8 Oymyakon, Russia

6) -71.2 Tomtor, Russia

7) -69.8 Verkhoyansk, Russia

8) -69.6 Oymyakon, Russia

9) -67.8 Verkhoyansk, Russia

10) -67.7 Oymyakon, Russia

11) -67.6 Oymyakon, Russia

12) -65.4 Verkhoyansk, Russia

13) -65.0 Delyankir, Yakutsk (both in Russia).

Climate of Oymyakon (data from 1943)
Index Jan. Feb. March Apr. May June July Aug. Sen. Oct. Nov. Dec. Year
The absolute maximum