The coldest town in the world
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Oymyakon is a small town with only about five hundred residents in the north-eastern corner of Russia. It is famous for being the coldest town in the world with regular winter temperatures of around -40ºC. In fact, the temperature sometimes drops below -50ºC, and it once went down to an incredible -68ºC. Now that’s cold!
In 2012, while I was living and working in Moscow, the capital of Russia, I decided to take the long flight north to this fascinating place. I wanted to find out how people managed to live in a town that was so cold. I met Sergei Platonov, who works as a tour guide there. Lots of tourists go to Oymyakon because they want to experience a really cold place!
Sergei began by telling me a bit about the history of the place. Before the 1920s, nobody lived in Oymyakon. The local people didn’t settle anywhere, but travelled from place to place with their reindeer. So Oymyakon was just a place where people sometimes stopped for a few days or weeks. However, the government at that time wanted these people to settle in one place, so they chose Oymyakon and built a town. Today, most people there live in blocks of flats. The town only has one shop and one school. There isn’t much to do!
Living in Oymyakon isn’t easy. It’s so cold that everything freezes. In the winter, if you drive somewhere, you can’t switch off the engine because it might not turn on again! You can’t use your mobile phone outside or wear glasses – they freeze to your head! As well as being cold in winter, it’s really dark. In fact there are only three hours of sunlight in December, so most people stay at home and try to keep warm.
There is, however, one group of people who spend a lot of time outside, and they are the sellers in the fish and meat markets. In all weathers, they stand at their stalls, dressed in layers and layers of fur clothes. Wearing animal fur, especially reindeer fur, is necessary. It’s warmer than any man-made clothing, and, although it’s expensive, the people of Oymyakon have no choice – they have to wear as many fur clothes as they can! They also eat a lot of meat and fish because fruit and vegetables don’t grow in the cold conditions. Reindeer meat soup is a popular dish in the town. I tried it – it’s really tasty!
Life is hard and so are the people. In January, while I was there, they asked me to join in one of their winter traditions – people took off their clothes and jumped in the river. When they came out, they were cold, blue and smiling! They believe that it’s good for your health! However, I decided not to join them!
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