Inside the coldest village on earth
A series of stunning pictures have revealed just what life is like for the residents of the village of Oymyakon, the coldest place to live on earth.
With an average January temperature of -50C, life is not easy at the best of times. But, remarkably, temperatures have dropped to as low as -71C, reports the Daily Mail.
This makes the remote Russian village, which is situated in the Oymyakon valley in the north-east of Russia, the place where the lowest recorded temperature for any permanently inhabited location on Earth has taken place. It is also where the lowest-ever temperature in the northern hemishpere has been recorded.
Oymyakon only has around 500 inhabitants and life is tough.
Residents must live off reindeer and horse meat because nothing else grows; planes cannot land in the winter; cars are kept running for hours to keep them on the road and digging graves can take days.
Mobile phones do not work because of the cold, which even effects things such as pens – the ink freezes – and wearing glasses, which can stick to the face.
Originally a stopover for reindeer herders around 100 years ago, nomadic groups were encouraged to settle by the Soviet government.
Even today most homes have few modern conveniences and burn coal and wood for heat but daily life is largely uninterrupted, with the only school in the village shutting only if temperatures drop below -52C.
And while the length of the day can be as short as three hours in December, temperatures can rocket in summer to 30C, with over 20 hours of sunshine.
