Where Is It Colder Than the North Pole?

The “cold pole” is a region of Siberia that is the coldest place on earth outside Antarctica. The temperatures in this part of Siberia are usually much lower than those at the North Pole, about 1,500 miles away, partly because of the higher altitude of this region.

The temperature at the North Pole probably does not drop lower than 60 degrees F below zero. But at Verkhoyansk, a settlement near the cold pole, the temperature often drops below 85 degrees F below zero. The temperature there once reached a low of 94 degrees F below!

Oddly enough, summer temperatures near the cold pole can climb to as high as 100 degrees F. A high temperature of 98 degrees F was once recorded at Verkhoyansk, giving the settlement a temperature range of 192 degrees F, the greatest on earth!

A few hundred miles from Verkhoyansk is the town of Oymyakon, the coldest place on earth that is permanently inhabited. Temperatures in Oymyakon have dropped to as low as 96 degrees below zero.