Climate
Vostok Station has an ice cap climate, with long, excessively cold winters and very short, frigid summers. The climate is extremely dry, with an average of only 20.8 millimeters of precipitation per year.
| Climate data for Vostok station, 1958 - 2010 | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | −12.2 (10.0) |
−22.9 (−9.2) |
−35.6 (−32.1) |
−33 (−27.4) |
−41.6 (−42.9) |
−40.1 (−40.2) |
−34.1 (−29.4) |
−36.1 (−33.0) |
−38.3 (−36.9) |
−24.5 (−12.1) |
−23.9 (−11.0) |
−14.1 (6.6) |
−12.2 (10.0) |
| Average high °C (°F) | −27.1 (−16.8) |
−38.6 (−37.5) |
−52.8 (−63.0) |
−61.2 (−78.2) |
−62 (−79.6) |
−60.5 (−76.9) |
−62.4 (−80.3) |
−64 (−83.2) |
−61.8 (−79.2) |
−51.7 (−61.1) |
−37.3 (−35.1) |
−27.3 (−17.1) |
−50.4 (−58.7) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −32.1 (−25.8) |
−44.3 (−47.7) |
−57.8 (−72.0) |
−64.8 (−84.6) |
−65.7 (−86.3) |
−65.2 (−85.4) |
−66.7 (−88.1) |
−68 (−90.4) |
−66.1 (−87.0) |
−57.2 (−71.0) |
−42.7 (−44.9) |
−31.9 (−25.4) |
−55.2 (−67.4) |
| Average low °C (°F) | −37.6 (−35.7) |
−50 (−58.0) |
−61.7 (−79.1) |
−67.8 (−90.0) |
−69.1 (−92.4) |
−68.8 (−91.8) |
−70.4 (−94.7) |
−71.6 (−96.9) |
−70.3 (−94.5) |
−63.2 (−81.8) |
−49.9 (−57.8) |
−38.1 (−36.6) |
−59.9 (−75.8) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −55.1 (−67.2) |
−64 (−83.2) |
−75 (−103.0) |
−80.4 (−112.7) |
−80.6 (−113.1) |
−83.3 (−117.9) |
−89.2 (−128.6) |
−85.4 (−121.7) |
−85.6 (−122.1) |
−76.1 (−105.0) |
−62.6 (−80.7) |
−48 (−54.4) |
−89.2 (−128.6) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 0.7 (0.028) |
0.6 (0.024) |
1.9 (0.075) |
2.3 (0.091) |
2.9 (0.114) |
2.5 (0.098) |
2.3 (0.091) |
2.2 (0.087) |
2.3 (0.091) |
1.8 (0.071) |
0.8 (0.031) |
0.5 (0.02) |
20.8 (0.819) |
| Source: | |||||||||||||
Vostok is the World Pole of Cold. During the long winter, temperatures average about −65 °C (−85 °F) in the brief summer, about −30 °C (−22 °F).
The lowest reliably measured temperature on Earth of −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F) was in Vostok on 21 July 1983 (See List of weather records), beating the station's former record of -88.3°C (-126.9°F) on 24 August 1960. Lower temperatures occurred higher up towards the summit of the ice sheet as temperature decreases with height along the surface.
Though unconfirmed, it has been reported that Vostok reached the temperature of −91 °C (−132 °F) during the winter of 1997.
The warmest recorded temperature at Vostok is −12.2 °C (10.0 °F), which occurred on 11 January 2002.
The coldest month was August 1987 with a mean temperature of −75.4 °C (−103.7 °F) and the warmest month was December 1989 with mean of −28 °C (−18 °F).
In addition to the extremely cold temperatures, other factors make Vostok one of the most difficult places on Earth for human habitation:
- An almost complete lack of moisture in the air.
- An average windspeed of 5 m/s (18 km/h) (11 mph), sometimes rising to as high as 27 m/s (97 km/h)(60 mph).
- A lack of oxygen because of its high altitude at 3,488 meters (11,444 ft).
- A higher ionization of the air.
- A polar night that lasts approximately 130 days, from mid April to late August, including 80 continuous days of civil polar night (i.e. too dark to read, during which the Sun is over 6 degrees below the horizon.)
Acclimatization to such conditions can take from a week to two months and is accompanied by headaches, eye twitches, ear pains, nose bleeds, perceived suffocation, sudden rises in blood pressure, loss of sleep, reduced appetite, vomiting, joint and muscle pain, arthritis, and weight loss of 3–5 kg (7–11 lb) (sometimes as high as 12 kg (26 lb)).
Read more about this topic: Vostok Station
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