Ever wonder what happens when you throw a cut of water in the air at -88 degrees?
This!
Welcome To Oymyakon, Siberia!
Welcome to the coldest village on earth – where water freezes the moment it hits the air – and the brutal cold is with you year round – I love this kind of stuff – thanks to some great reporting!
I first heard about Oymyakon thanks to an amazing story in The Washington Post titled:
“In the coldest village on Earth, eyelashes freeze, dinner is frozen and temperatures sink to -88F”
As the story notes:
“In this remote outpost in Siberia, the cold is no small affair.
Could you handle this?
Eyelashes freeze, frostbite is a constant danger and cars are usually kept running even when not being used, so that their batteries won’t die in temperatures that average minus-58 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter!
The story explains very simply what makes this city so unique:
This is Oymyakon, a settlement of some 500 people in Russia’s Yakutia region, that has earned the reputation as the coldest permanently occupied human settlement in the world.”
Imagine a world of such extreme cold…yet thousands live here and do just that!
Wow! And as for those eyelashes:
Cold enough for you? I can’t imagine living there, but for 500 hearty souls, it’s just another day in the life…a VERY COLD LIFE!
If you want to see more about life in Siberia, there is a terrific documentary that spends a year there:
Director Werner Herzog took a TV series from Russia about a year in the life of Siberia and cut it into a fantastic documentary called “Happy People” – and yes, when you catch a fish there, you can just leave it sit out, because it will freeze until you need it!
You can click here to see the trailer for this film, which is terrific:
One Reporter took a train across Russia, including Siberia, and wrote a riveting story about life in this country:
You can get more detail on this book, which I highly recommend, by clicking on my story here:
If you enjoy these posts, PLEASE CLICK THE “LIKE” BUTTON BELOW SO I KNOW!
Also, why not subscribe and never miss out? It’s easy, and there are NO ads of any kind, just stuff I like, so click on the main page and “follow” me on the upper right!
Thanks so much for reading! If you liked this, please share on social media!
Let me know if you are up for this kind of living!
Categories: Books / Media, Cult Movies, documentary films, Exotic Travel, Memoirs, nature, Travel, Travel Adventures, Travel Memoir
johnrieber 
I would not thrive in this town, John. I just about freeze to death during our Joburg winters and our night time temperatures haven’t dropped below freezing yet.
LikeLike
That sounds incredibly horrible, I hate to be cold )
LikeLike
Brrrrr
LikeLike
The pictures are beautiful, but I’m not hardy enough for this.
LikeLike
When I first went to the Soviet Union in February 1977, it was -28 C in Leningrad. At that temperature, drivers removed windscreen wipers when they parked their cars, and covered the tyres in ‘jackets’. We were told that was because the rubber would freeze solid overnight. In the engine bay, they had small paraffin heaters (kerosene) running all night, to stop the oil getting too thick in the cold. Talk about a fire hazard!
Compared to this Siberian town, that was relatively ‘warm’.
Best wishes, Pete.
LikeLike
Oh my. I do recall frozen eyelashes in Alberta and frozen nose hairs. But then many of the early settlers came from Siberia and probably thought the -40 C was warm. Tough folks!
LikeLike
The photo of the frozen eyelashes says it all. Can you imagine the culture and temperature shock for these people if they hit the beach for a day?
LikeLike