The village of Oymyakon: what is wrong with the coldest place in Russia . The village of Oymyakon is the coldest settlement in the world The lowest temperature in the city of Oymyakon

Rosalia Petrovna Kondakova

Oymyakon is best known as one of the "Cold Poles" on the planet, according to a number of parameters, the Oymyakon Valley is the most severe place on Earth, where the permanent population lives.

The lowest temperature on Earth (-89.2 °C) was noted at the Vostok Antarctic station, however, the station is located at an altitude of 3488 m above sea level, and if we bring both temperature indicators to sea level, then Oymyakon will be recognized as the absolute champion . According to unofficial data, on the night of January 5-6, 1916, the temperature in the village dropped to -82 Celsius, which is only 7.2 higher than the absolute minimum on the planet, which was recorded 67.5 years later, on 21.07. 1983 at the Soviet polar station "Vostok". Then the absolute minimum at the same station was -88.3, ​​that is, in Oymyakon it was only 6.3 higher. The average annual temperature in Oymyakon is -22.1 Celsius, these are the coldest averages in the Northern Hemisphere of the Earth. For comparison, the average annual temperatures at Vostok station are -55.6 C, since the climate there is less sharply continental (due to the polar night), and the altitude is 3488 meters above sea level, which is 2747 meters higher than in Oymyakon. Even in the two most predominantly warm months of the year, June and July, the temperature in the village can drop to -9.7 and -9.3 degrees, respectively. The absolute maximum in Oymyakon is 34.6 C. Among the 11 minimums on Earth from -65 degrees to the minimum, Oymyakon ranks third and fourth. Below is a list of these temperatures.

1) -89.6 station "Vostok", Antarctica

2) -88.3 station "Vostok", Antarctica

3) -82.8 Verkhoyansk, Russia

4) -82.0 Oymyakon, Russia

5) -77.8 Oymyakon, Russia

6) -71.2 Tomtor, Russia

7) -69.8 Verkhoyansk, Russia

8) -69.6 Oymyakon, Russia

9) -67.8 Verkhoyansk, Russia

10) -67.7 Oymyakon, Russia

11) -67.6 Oymyakon, Russia

12) -65.4 Verkhoyansk, Russia

13) -65.0 Delyankir, Yakutsk (both in Russia).

Photos from open sources

This is the most severe place on our planet where people live permanently. There are about five hundred of them. The main occupation of the local population is cattle breeding, reindeer herding and fishing. In summer, people go to the so-called. flyers for haymaking. In Oymyakon, there are all signs of civilization: there is a cellular connection, the Internet and an airport built back in the war years. There are a hospital, schools - ordinary and musical, a kindergarten, a club, a library, a gym, a bakery, a gas station and a shop. By the way, food prices in Oymyakon are higher than in the Russian capital: a loaf of bread, for example, costs 50 rubles. (website)

The stagnant cold of Oymyakon penetrates to the bones

The village is located at an altitude of 741 meters above sea level. In winter, very cold air flows into the Oymyakon valley. And although there is no wind here, the stagnant cold, as the locals say, penetrates through and through.

The lowest temperature in the village was recorded in 1938: -77.8 degrees Celsius. Meteorologists and scientists have been arguing for a long time which of the settlements of Yakutia is more "cold" - Oymyakon or Verkhoyansk. The latest data favors Oymyakon, where absolute annual lows are 3.5 degrees lower.

Photos from open sources

The difference between winter and summer temperatures here reaches 104 degrees. By the way, the highest summer temperature was recorded in 2010: +34.6 degrees Celsius.

However, most of the year Oymyakon is covered in snow. The permafrost prevents people from properly digging graves, and everyone prays that their loved ones don't die in the winter.

The shortest day in December here lasts three hours; summer is the time of white nights, when it is light all day and night. This time of the year, in turn, is also characterized by a significant temperature drop: during the day it can reach +30 degrees, and at night it can drop below zero.

Photos from open sources

Kids in Oymyakon are dressed “like cabbage”, leaving only their eyes open. At the same time, they can only walk on sleds, since it is very difficult for children to walk in their “hundred clothes”. As for schoolchildren, primary school students stay at home at a temperature of -52 degrees, and at -56 degrees the whole school is no longer studying.

The adult population of Oymyakon dresses in down jackets and fur coats, fur hats and high boots made of deer skins. People are forced to put on two or three pairs of pants, socks, tights. A hat covering the forehead and a scarf raised to the bridge of the nose save the face from frostbite. However, there are cases when the local beauties wore nylon tights in 50-degree frost and managed not to freeze.

Photos from open sources

For cars, the villagers have heated garages; the driver warms up the engine for 10-15 minutes before leaving. If there is no garage, the engine is not turned off at all. Additional stoves are installed in the engine cabins, and they drive on arctic diesel fuel (diesel oil and kerosene are mixed). Many drivers make a pipe with their own hands, with the help of which they heat the fuel. Yakut truckers do not turn off the engines of their cars for months.

Nature and animals of Oymyakon

The nature of Oymyakon is beautiful and unique: there are streams that do not freeze in a 70-degree frost, and ice that does not melt in a 30-degree heat.

Of all the Oymyakon animals, only horses, dogs and, of course, reindeer are able to endure the winter cold. Cows are released from a warm barn at a temperature not lower than -30 degrees, while special warm bras are put on their udders. In winter, cats are not let out at all, and if some extreme girl jumps out of the house herself, she is guaranteed frostbite. As for dogs, they are taken home on especially cold days or allowed into the garage. The rest of the time these animals spend on the street.

Photos from open sources

Today, many tourists come to Oymyakon - Russian travelers and foreigners. Among the local attractions are the preserved buildings of the Gulag camps, the museum, Lake Labynkyr and Moltanskaya Rock, covered with secrets and legends, and, of course, the local frosts themselves. Every spring, the village hosts a festival called "Oymyakon - the Pole of Cold", and then you can see a lot of Santa Clauses, who have come together from different countries of the world.

The Lena River - one of the longest rivers on earth stretches from the Southern tundra to the Northern taiga and, in the end, flows into the Arctic Ocean. On the Lena River, unique rock formations with views of extraordinary beauty are striking. But in this article we will talk about another attraction of Yakutia - this is the Pole of Cold.

As the Yakuts like to say: we have nine months of winter and three months of real winter. But it's not all that bad. There are also short summer weeks with fairly warm days.

There is some competition for the title of the coldest place in the Northern Hemisphere. Since 1926, the village of Oymyakon, or rather the village of Tomtor, located 30 km southeast, has been arguing with Verkhoyansk for the right to be called the "Pole of Cold".

Despite the fact that a lower temperature was recorded in Antarctica than in Oymyakon, the comparison of these readings is not considered to be fully correct. The Vostok station is located at an altitude of 3488 m above sea level, while Oymyakon is at an altitude of 741 m. To compare the results, it is necessary to bring both values ​​to sea level. In the Northern Hemisphere, the right to be called the "Pole of Cold" is disputed by two settlements of Yakutia: the city of Verkhoyansk and the village of Oymyakon, where a temperature of -77.8 ° C was noted.

Oymyakon is located in a depression and is protected on all sides by mountains that prevent the release of heavy cold air. The same mountains prevent the penetration of moist air masses coming from the oceans. The Oymyakon depression is located higher above sea level than Verkhoyansk, therefore, extremely low air temperatures can be expected here. Tomtor is home to the famous Oymyakon meteorological station, where in 1938 a temperature of -77.8°C was recorded. On this basis, Oymyakon can be considered the coldest place on Earth. The average monthly temperature in January in Oymyakon is -61°C, but can reach -68°C. According to unofficial data, in the winter of 1916, the temperature in the village dropped to -82°C.

Oymyakon means “non-freezing spring” in the local language. In this area there are indeed streams, sections of rivers that do not freeze in such a severe frost. Oymyakon in translation means "non-freezing water". The nature surrounding the streams is striking in its unreality.

For many years, the cold held back the flow of tourists to the region of permafrost. But recently, it is the cold that has contributed to the development of a new concept of tourism and has become a new brand in the tourism infrastructure of the region. Those who want to test themselves for strength, to see what real winter looks like, go to Yakutia, the edge of permafrost. It is exceptionally cold here, but the region is very friendly. Routes have been created for tourists that will allow them to explore the local life, gastronomic preferences, see the algys ritual, the working days of reindeer herders, participate in horseback riding routes, sport fishing, hunting, sightseeing, visit the Pole of Cold festival.

Residents of Oymyakon do not wear clothes made of synthetic fabrics, because in the cold it disintegrates, in winter even cows are dressed here so that they do not freeze the udder. There are no colds in Oymyakon, because viruses freeze, exhaled air freezes. There are many long-livers in this region. In Oymyakon you can hear the "whisper of the stars". In the cold, human breath instantly freezes and you can hear its quiet rustle. The name “whisper of the stars” was given to this amazing phenomenon by the Yakuts. The locals are engaged in breeding the Yakut horse, which is known for its adaptation to the climate and finds the opportunity to search for vegetation that is under deep snow cover.

• see the life of people in extreme conditions;
• ride along the Yakutsk-Magadan highway;
• find some fragments of the Airacobra, an aircraft that crashed during the transfer of planes to Patriotic war;
• visit weather station Vostochnaya;
• visit a gold mine, and ethnographic complex "Bakaldyn";
• magnificent scenery: majestic mountains and fast rivers;
• see huge reindeer pastures;
• to feel "in one's own skin" extreme frost and its impact on everything around;
• taste foal meat and stroganina prepared according to local recipes;
• in sunny weather, you can observe a halo - when the sun above the horizon turns into three almost identical ones.

You can buy a ticket to Yakutsk using the service

The cheapest tickets from Moscow to Yakutsk and back

There are two museums in the village - local history and literary local history. In the first one, all the exhibits, even the carbine of the 18th century, can be touched with your hands (I still recommend not to abuse it). The second is located in the school building and is dedicated to the repressed Russian writers and the history of the Gulag in the territory of the region as a whole, for which it is called the "Gulag Museum".

Also, history lovers will be interested in this area as a place of camps of the Gulag system and the very Kolyma highway, built at the cost of thousands of lives of political prisoners.

In Tomtor, the obelisk "Pole of Cold" is installed, where the temperature record, noted by the geologist Obruchev, is immortalized. This obelisk is also a local landmark. Every year in early April Tomtor hosts the Pole of Cold festival, which attracts numerous tourists. The main event of the holiday is the auto-tour Yakutsk-Oymyakon, 1270 km of snow-covered tracks. At this time, there are competitions among Santa Clauses on snowmobiles, deer, and also, for local girls: “Miss Pole of Cold” and “Mistress of the Plague”, an exhibition of national clothes, applied art and national cuisine of the peoples of the North, reindeer racing, ice fishing. During the festival, mass festivities include dog sledding made of Yakut huskies. If you are lucky, you will be able to taste the incredibly tasty chubuku bighorn sheep meat, which is extremely difficult to get on the hunt.

Santa Claus from Lapland and Grandfather Frost from Veliky Ustyug are regular guests of the festival. Why is a festival with that name held here in April and not, for example, in January? They say, at the request of the heat-loving Santa Claus.

From Yakutsk to Oymyakon (Tomtor) can be reached in one day. The Kolyma federal highway has been significantly expanded in the last two years, and the dangerous sections that were a few years ago have been strengthened. The best season for a trip to the Pole of Cold is from early December to April.

The Indigirka River, flowing in Oymyakon, is known not only for gold mines and antimony mining, but also for a large number of different types of fish. Fishing for vendace, nelma, omul, whitefish, whitefish, whitefish is carried out on the river. Tourists can take part in ice fishing: in the clear water of Indigirka, fish can be seen even at a depth of four meters.

In the tourist complex "Chochur-Muran" there is a small ethnographic museum. Its exposition consists of antique items. In winter, a park of ice sculptures is created on the territory of the complex by the hands of Yakut masters. This kind of art is very popular in Yakutia. The main attraction is the “Kingdom of Permafrost” arranged inside the mountain. In the cave, tourists are met by the Yakut frost carved from ice - Chyskhaan. In the room of the Master of the North, you can see ice furniture and dishes. The next hall is intended for rites of purification, reverence. The newlyweds are honored here, and they sincerely wish that their union would be as eternal as the surrounding permafrost. The Permafrost Museum has an ice slide, the Ice Bar. For your visit to the unusual Museum, you can get a personalized certificate from the Archivist.

Are you complaining about being cold? Say thank you that you do not live in the village of Oymyakon! In January, the temperature here can stay firmly at minus 50ºС for weeks, so it is not surprising that this settlement is rightfully called the coldest in the world. The lowest temperature in the history of Oymyakon was ...-71.2ºС!!!

(Total 20 photos)

1. About 500 people live in the village. In the 20s and 30s it was a stopover for reindeer herders.

2. However, the Soviet government, in an attempt to "settle down" the nomads, because. considered them ungovernable, made this settlement permanent.

3. Here, who is not so cold in such frosts!

4. Ironically, the word Oymyakon means "non-freezing water" - in honor of the nearby hot spring.

5. This monument marks the record low temperature in the history of the village.

9. 52-year-old Alexander Platonov - a retired teacher - went to the toilet, which is located behind his house. Many travel companies offer to visit the village and try to live in such conditions.

10. By the way, the only local school closes only at temperatures below -52ºС.

11. Oymyakon lies about two days drive from the city of Yakutsk, the capital of the region.

12. It is served by two airports, the capital has a university, schools, theaters and museums. In the photo: the road to Oymyakon, which was nicknamed the "Road of Bones".

13. Toilet at a gas station on the way to Oymyakon.

14. And this is a student of Yakutsk at a bus stop in the capital.

15. Common problems that Oymyakon residents face every day: ink in pens freezes, batteries lose power, and many locals leave their cars running all day, because. afraid they just might not turn them on again.

16. Another problem: funerals. In this cold weather, it can take up to three days to dig a grave in the frozen ground. In this case, the earth must first be warmed with a fire and hot coals should be placed around the edges.

17. And here is the gas station on the way to Oymyakon.

Oymyakon appeared on the map of Russia not so long ago - in 1935. The settlement became a district center, uniting several nearby villages into a single territorial unit - Olchan, Sarylakh and others.

In 1954, the regional center moved to Ust-Nera. Today, the district (ulus), with an area of ​​​​over 92 km², is part of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).

Nevertheless, the village retains the status of a socio-cultural center, which is not surprising given such a unique history.

In contact with

origins

The first mentions come from the beginning of the 17th century. In the valley of the Indigirka, just above the mouth of the Kuente, the water of underground springs does not magically freeze in a fierce cold.

This phenomenon gave the name to the valley, and then to the village (Oymyakon - Warm Key from the Even language) where yurts stood in groups. The nomad camp was practically permanent, yurts were located at a distance of 80 km from Oymyakon to Tomtor.

A native of the village of Taryn-Yuryakh, Nikolai Osipovich Krivoshapka was the last successor of a merchant family and, like his ancestors, was engaged in the fur trade - an extremely successful trade in those days.

It is important to know: the name of the remarkable philanthropist and educator N.O. Krivoshapka, who gave strength and means to his native ulus, was assigned to one of the Yakut schools. Although some residents of the village believe that ascetic labor deserves more fame.

The childless philanthropist built churches and chapels, supported public education, and built schools. At his expense, the Sakha Omuk library was built, bridges were erected across the Aldan and Taatta.

Geographical position

For our contemporaries, there is a strong association: Oymyakon is the pole of cold. A clarification is needed here.

The Oymyakon Valley is rightfully considered one of the most severe places on Earth. The locals joke: “Even our vodka turns to ice,” but people live here all the time, as they always did.

The name Oymyakon often combines two settlements of the Russian Federation - Oymyakon and Tomtor. This is the so-called "Pole of Cold", they are located in the Oymyakon depression.

The depression itself, where cold air flows, is a unique geological phenomenon. The bowl formed by tectonic movements consists of an ice bottom (valley) with walls of hills. The realm of cold, frost are normal phenomena for the area, and where it is colder - in which place - no one knows.

Note: the expression "pole of cold" was invented rather by tourists. After all, serious meteorological surveys have never been carried out here. There is only one meteorological station at the Oymyakon airport at a distance of 40 km from the village, near Tomtor. And the cold pole is a triangle connecting Verkhoyansk and the Oymyakon valley.

The Pole is located on the continent of Eurasia. The location coordinates are 63°27`00` north latitude and 142°47`00` east longitude. The settlement is located in the subarctic continental climatic zone.\

Climate and weather

And yet, it is not for nothing that this area is called the pole, it is the coldest point on our planet. Let's see why.

Winter records are marked with commemorative obelisks. And the lowest, -77.8°C, was registered in the village itself in 1938. The average temperature in January is also extremely low here - January frosts stay at around 50 ° for weeks.

It is better not to turn off cars in winter

However, information about temperatures in different sources is very different. The average temperature during the day is -43°, the minimum is -65°. Oymyakon argues with Verkhoyansk, where the record was 68° in 1933, and which has the right to be called the coldest settlement. Yes, but is it worth it to start such disputes.

But even in these harsh places summer comes, and the temperature can rise to + 30 °! And at night the temperature can drop to +5°-10°. The absolute record of summer heat +32.6 was registered in July 1989. Summer is short, only 1.2-2 months, winter lasts endlessly.

According to Wikipedia, the village is located at an altitude of 750 m above sea level. In summer the day lasts 21 hours, in winter only 3 hours. The area occupies one of the first places in the world in terms of fluctuations in winter and summer temperatures.

Airport

The airport is an important component of the entire infrastructure of the ulus.

The villages of Oymyakon and Tomtor are located, as it were, at a dead end, the Kolyma highway once passed here, now it goes through the regional center of Ust-Nera, much north of Tomtor, to the side. The old road is now out of service, there are no bridges. Air communication is the only way to get to these places.

This is how the airport looks today

Today, the airport, 4 km from Tomtor, is just an airfield. And just 30 years ago it was a legend: the airport with two runways was part of the Alaska-Siberia air route, it accepted up to 100 aircraft, even Yakutsk did not accept such a number.

Northern pilots performed miracles, lifting and landing icy cars every day. Mitchell B-25 bombers landed here, Airacobra R-39 fighters landed here, belly-landed here.

When the landing gear froze to the hatches, airport workers rolled out barrels in large numbers onto the runway and the plane rolled along them, landing safely without a landing gear. Valor of the war and post-war period.

Today there is no elementary infrastructure, no waiting room, dispatchers in a small room freeze in the cold and get wet in the rain, the roof leaks. Old equipment and other problems. But even now the airport is working, the famous Cheburashkas, L-410 planes and other small aircraft fly.

Tourist comment: planes do not fly to Yakutsk in winter. You can get to Ust-Negra, from there further to Yakutsk from it to Moscow and many cities of the country. In summer, from May to September, a plane flies to the capital Sakha once a week.

In winter, the district center and other settlements are reached by automobile winter road.

The village with a population of 521 lives its own life, measured and silent. The locals are not talkative, but friendly and welcoming. The climate in many ways contributed to the formation of customs and traditions. Here are some features of this region:

• the equipment of local policemen is distinguished by the absence of batons. The material from which they are made does not withstand frost;
• the school is closed at a temperature of -60 °;
• cars in the village are not uncommon, but in winter they work constantly. If the car is turned off, then there is a risk of not starting again, especially if it stands in the cold for more than 2 hours;
• residents wear clothes made only from natural fabrics. Even cows wear warm clothes; special bags are sewn for them so as not to catch a cold in the udder. In Soviet times, cows of the Yakut breed were bred, in which the udder was covered with saving wool, but the milk yields of the northern cows did not suit the management. Attempts to replace the breed led to the death of the dairy herd;

This is interesting: a wonderful festival "Pole of Cold" is held here, where you can see alys, a ritual performance from the life of reindeer herders, a spectacle of bewitching beauty and primitiveness, ride a dog sled, try national cuisine, for example, snow sheep meat.

• the village does not register colds, viral diseases, microbes do not survive in the cold;
• near the village, there is non-freezing water, a spring with surprisingly clear water, like from a fairy tale, whether alive or dead. The source with the river can be seen in pictures in books and the Internet;
• there is a monument with a temperature record, the only shop with very high prices, a school, there is a gas station at the entrance to the village;

Interesting fact: The Kingdom of Permafrost is the main attraction. The space carved in the cave is subordinate to Chychkhaan, this is the name of the character of the Yakut epic - frost. He kindly welcomes visitors, shows his possessions, ice utensils, furniture, allows you to ride down the hill and relax in the ice bar.

• in Indigirka, a river with crystal clear water, you can see swimming fish, the famous vendace, omul, seal, muksun and chira are found here. Fishing is good, any season is suitable for it, but hunting is allowed only in winter;
• an ethnological museum operates near the village at the Chochur-Muran camp site, interesting stories will be revealed by the toponymy of the ulus. Here, man-made ice caves created by Yakut sculptors open their arms.

How people live

The regional center is located 900 kilometers from the village. A plane ticket costs about 27,000 rubles. In winter, they take a taxi to Yakutsk, the minibus is on the road for more than 16 hours. Oymyakon residents go to the capital on their own business.

The people here are resilient and strong. They eat the meat of deer, horses, hunt, fish. The Yakut horse is a unique animal: it lives on the street, it does not need a stable, it feeds by digging roots out of the frozen ground.

This is a free animal, lives next to the owners and helps them for feeding him. Its meat contains vitamins and microelements that allow a person to receive good nutrition without vegetables and fruits.

Houses with no amenities. Ordinary Russian huts are heated with coal and firewood. For heating 8 months of the winter season, 50,000 rubles are laid out. There is electricity.

We have long been accustomed to the fact that batteries quickly “sit down” in the cold, ink freezes, and cars are equipped with double windows. The dead are buried in permafrost. Before digging a grave, they burn fires for three days, warming the earth.

The Oymyakon valley of the Stalin era became a haven for 29 camps, which left its gloomy imprint on this beautiful land. The Tomtor School Gulag Museum can tell a lot. These dark times will never be forgotten.

But life goes on, children are born, tourists come. The Pole does not freeze because the Indigirka carries its waters, and warm springs beat.

For more information about the plus of cold, see the following interesting video: