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EPISODE
1992: Verkhoyansk, Russia records a high of -46°F
November 05, 2021
•
2 min
Ashburn
Virginia
Verkhoyansk, Russia is notable chiefly for its exceptionally low winter temperatures and some of the greatest temperature differences on Earth between summer and winter. Average monthly temperatures range from 50 below zero F in January to almost 62 F in July. Average monthly temperatures are below freezing from October through April but climb above 50 °F from June through August, with the intervening months of May and September constituting very short transitional seasons. Verkhoyansk is located within the Arctic Circle. The lowest temperature recorded there, in February 1892, was 90.0 °F below zero, recorded on February 5 and 7. Only Antarctica has recorded lower temperatures than Verkhoyansk. In this area temperature inversions consistently form in winter due to the extremely cold and dense air, so that temperatures increase rather than decrease with higher altitude. In Verkhoyansk it sometimes happens that the average minimum temperatures for January, February, and December are below −58 ° F. Verkhoyansk is one of the only two permanently populated places in the world that have recorded temperatures below −76.0 °F every day of January. In its short summer, daytime temperatures over 86 °F are not uncommon. On June 20, 2020, Verkhoyansk recorded a temperature of 100.4 °F, yielding a record temperature range of 190.4 °F based on reliable records, and that is the greatest temperature range in the world. It was also the highest temperature above the Arctic Circle ever recorded. Only a handful of towns in Siberia and Canada have temperature ranges of 180 °F or more. Verkhoyansk has never recorded a temperature above freezing between November 10 and March 14. On November 5, 1992 warm weather in Verkhoyansk was a fleeting thought with a morning low of -51 degrees, high of -46 degrees. The daily average temperature was 27 degrees below normal.
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