I had a really disappointing revelation last week about our new work-from-home reality. Snow days are now just work days where you also have to shovel. Although we’ve seen some frigid temperatures along the east coast of the US, we really can’t complain, at least compared to those in Yakutsk, Russia. Yakutsk is known as the city that sees the largest temperature differentials. While its summers can be quite warm, they are also quite short, and cold weather is present for most of the year. The lowest recorded temperature in Yakutsk is -83.9° F (or -64.4°C). Below, Klun B offers some visual explanations of just how cold things are and what that means for your noodles or your laundry.

David Crotty

David Crotty

David Crotty is a Senior Consultant at Clarke & Esposito, a boutique management consulting firm focused on strategic issues related to professional and academic publishing and information services. Previously, David was the Editorial Director, Journals Policy for Oxford University Press. He oversaw journal policy across OUP’s journals program, drove technological innovation, and served as an information officer. David acquired and managed a suite of research society-owned journals with OUP, and before that was the Executive Editor for Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, where he created and edited new science books and journals, along with serving as a journal Editor-in-Chief. He has served on the Board of Directors for the STM Association, the Society for Scholarly Publishing and CHOR, Inc., as well as The AAP-PSP Executive Council. David received his PhD in Genetics from Columbia University and did developmental neuroscience research at Caltech before moving from the bench to publishing.

Discussion

3 Thoughts on "The Coldest Town on Earth"

As a geographer, I looked for a map, and realised my Russian [Komi] PhD student Dr Julia Loginova had worked there. The map is on p73 of her thesis. https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/bitstream/handle/11343/217795/LOGINOVA%20FINAL%20THESIS.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y She says “Field trips took place in the warm season (May to October) when snow has melted. Several considerations led to this decision. First, this period is busy for local people’s engagement with nature and their livelihoods (fishing, hunting, gathering mushrooms and berries), providing opportunities for observations. Second, snowless period is the best time when oil extraction sites can be visited, and observations of operations and its impacts undertaken. Third, for practical reasons, since some of the areas are among the coldest places on the planet, winter was risky for travelling large distances without a clear idea of accommodations in remote settings.” She now works in a warmer place at U of Queensland, Australia!

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