Oymyakon

src: upload.wikimedia.org

Oymyakon (Russian: ????????, pronounced [?jm??'kon]; Sakha: ????????, Öymököön, IPA: [øjmø'kø:n]) is a rural locality (a selo) in Oymyakonsky District of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located along the Indigirka River, 30 kilometers (19 mi) northwest of Tomtor on the Kolyma Highway. It is one of the coldest permanently inhabited locales on Earth.

Video Oymyakon

Etymology

It is named after the Oymyakon River, whose name reportedly comes from the Even word kheium, meaning "unfrozen patch of water; place where fish spend the winter." However, another source states that the Even word heyum (h?j??) (kheium may be a misspelling) means "frozen lake".

Maps Oymyakon

Geography

Oymyakon has two main valleys beside it. These valleys trap wind inside the town and create the colder climate. However, children are still allowed to go school if it is less than -55 degrees Celsius.

src: i.ytimg.com

History

During World War II, an airfield was built there for the Alaska-Siberian (ALSIB) air route used to ferry American Lend-Lease aircraft to the Eastern Front.

src: www.passenger6a.com

Climate

With an extreme subarctic climate (Köppen climate classification Dwd), Oymyakon is known as one of the places considered the Northern Pole of Cold, the other being the town of Verkhoyansk, located 629 km (391 miles) away by air. The ground is permanently frozen (continuous permafrost).

On February 6, 1933, a temperature of -67.7 °C (-89.9 °F) was recorded at Oymyakon's weather station. This was the coldest officially recorded temperature in the Northern Hemisphere. Only Antarctica has recorded lower official temperatures (the lowest being -89.2 °C (-128.6 °F), recorded at Vostok Station on 21 July 1983.)

The weather station is in a valley between Oymyakon and Tomtor. The station is at 750 meters (2,460 ft) and the surrounding mountains at 1,100 meters (3,600 ft), causing cold air to pool in the valley: in fact, recent studies show that winter temperatures in the area increase with altitude by as much as 10 °C (18 °F).

Some years the temperature drops below 0 °C (32 °F) in late September and may remain below freezing until mid-May. In Oymyakon sometimes the average minimum temperature for January, February and December remains below -50 °C (-58 °F). Sometimes summer months can also be quite cold, but June and July are the only months where the temperature has never dropped below -10 °C (14 °F). Oymyakon and Verkhoyansk are the only two permanently inhabited places in the world that have recorded temperatures below -60.0 °C (-76 °F) for every day in January.

Oymyakon has never recorded an above-freezing temperature between October 25 and March 17.

Although winters in Oymyakon are long and excessively cold, summers are mild to warm, sometimes hot. The warmest month on record is July 2010 with an average temperature of +18.7 °C (65.7 °F). In June, July and August temperatures over 30 °C (86 °F) are not rare during the day. On July 28, 2010, Oymyakon recorded a record high temperature of 34.6 °C (94 °F), yielding a temperature range of 102.3 °C (184.1 °F). Verkhoyansk and Yakutsk are the only other places in the world with a temperature amplitude higher than 100 °C (180 °F).

The climate is quite dry, but as average monthly temperatures are below freezing for seven months of the year, substantial evaporation occurs only in summer months. Summers are much wetter than winters.

src: www.telegraph.co.uk

In the media

Oymyakon has been featured in a number of television series:

• The episode "The Winter's Tale" of the 1996 PBS weather documentary series Savage Skies.
• The season two episode "Siberia" of the documentary series World's Most Dangerous Roads.
• Oxford geographer Nick Middleton's television series and accompanying book Going to Extremes, in which he discusses his visit to this village and describes ways in which inhabitants cope with the extreme cold. Middleton describes how Oymyakon lies between two mountain ranges, trapping cold air between throughout the year. In the winter, once every two days, the village's cattle's herd bull was harnessed between the shafts of a sledge with a big water tank on it and led to the spring. The men broke the ice on the spring, let the bull drink its fill, filled the water tank from the spring, and let the bull pull the tanker sledge back into the warm. The water spring was naturally warm and so stayed liquid below the surface ice.
• Cameraman Geoff Mackley along with Rachael Wilson and Mark Whetu from New Zealand, made an episode for Discovery Channel series Dangerman. They were accompanied by translator Rob Walker (USA) and Vyacheslav Ipatiev (TourServiceCenter). Geoff rode the bull which pulled the water tank sledge to the spring, and spent a night outside in a tent.
• The episode "Hot and Cold" in the 2010 BBC series Extreme World features the village.
• The episode "Chilling Out" in the 1 April 2012 Episode of Australia's 60 Minutes.
• The travel series Departures Season 3 Episode 2 "Russia: The Bull of Winter" March 13, 2010. Travelers Scott Wilson and Justin Lukach, Director of Photography/Director Andre Dupuis, Translator Bogdan Almazov.
• "Coldest Road," an episode of the Discovery Channel three-part series Driven to Extremes starring Tom Hardy
• The TV show Castle episode "Dead Red" talked about sending a Russian diplomat there to serve his time for a crime he committed.

src: www.passenger6a.com

See also

• Verkhoyansk the other candidate "Northern Pole of Cold" if one considers mean winter temperature
• Yakutsk, coldest major city
• Summit Camp
• Eismitte

src: a.abcnews.com

References

src: i.ytimg.com

External links

• Oymyakon 1996/97 Expedition
• 2008/09 Expedition
• City map Oymyakon
• Video report from SkyNews
• Life in Oymyakon. AskYakutia.com
• Russia: The Bull of Winter Season 3 Episode 2 Departures
• General information about Oymyakon

Source of the article : Wikipedia