Near-record freezing temperatures break Siberian thermometer

  • 16/01/2018
It was cold enough to break the village thermometer
It was cold enough to break the village thermometer Photo credit: Getty

While we're dreaming of cooler temperatures in New Zealand to help us sleep, in Siberia they have the opposite problem.

The remote village of Oymyakon is the coldest permanently inhabited settlement on earth, with around 500 residents. Every winter, it records some of the lowest temperatures in the world.

This week, they plunged to near-record lows - which were cold enough to break the village's thermometer.

The new electronic thermometer had been set up to measure the extreme weather. However it broke at -62degC.

An official weather station registered -59degC, but locals reported temperatures even further below this on their own thermometers.

The village's record is -67.7degC, which was recorded in 1933.

While lower temperatures are recorded in Antarctica, there are no permanently inhabited settlements.

Newshub.