Cold Pole

A cold pole, or pole of cold, is the region in each hemisphere that records the lowest sustained surface air temperatures, set by continental isolation, elevation, and persistent radiative cooling rather than by latitude alone. In the Northern Hemisphere it lies in northeastern Siberia around Verkhoyansk and Oymyakon, where the coldest reliably measured temperatures near minus 67.7 degrees Celsius were recorded in 1892 and 1933. In the Southern Hemisphere it sits on the high East Antarctic Plateau, where Vostok Station recorded minus 89.2 degrees Celsius on 21 July 1983, the lowest naturally occurring temperature measured at the surface. Cold poles do not coincide with the geographic poles.