Pole of Cold - Southern Hemisphere

Southern Hemisphere

In the Southern Hemisphere, the Pole of Cold is currently located in Antarctica, at the Russian (formerly Soviet) Antarctic station Vostok at 78°28′S 106°48′E / 78.467°S 106.8°E / -78.467; 106.8 (Vostok). On July 21, 1983, this station recorded a temperature of −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F). This is the lowest naturally occurring temperature ever recorded on Earth. Vostok station's location at the elevation of 3,488 metres (11,444 ft) above sea level, far removed from moderating influence of oceans (more than 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) from the nearest sea coast), and high latitude that results in almost 3 months of civil polar night every year (early May to end of July), all combine to produce an environment where temperatures rarely rise above −25 °C (−13 °F) during summer and frequently fall below −70 °C (−94 °F) in winter. By comparison, the South Pole, due to its lower elevation, is, on average, 5 to 10 °C (9 to 18 °F) warmer than Vostok, and the lowest temperature ever recorded at the South Pole is −82.8 °C (−117.0 °F).

It is generally thought that Vostok is not the coldest place in Antarctica, and there are locations (notably, Dome A) that are modestly colder on average. Monitoring stations in Antarctica are few and far between; prior to 1995, Vostok was the only research station on the Antarctic Plateau above the elevation of 3,000 metres (9,800 ft), with no other stations for several hundreds of kilometers in any direction. Temperatures below −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F), if they did occur elsewhere, would not have been recorded. The automatic weather station at Dome A was only installed in 2005, and has recorded −82.5 °C (−116.5 °F) as the coldest so far (2010).