Oymyakon, Russia
With permanently frozen ground and temperatures that have reached -90 degrees Fahrenheit (-67.7 Celsius), the remote Siberian town of Oymyakon is the coldest permanently inhabited place on Earth. creative commons

This Siberian village's thermometer broke last night because of how cold it was.

Oymyakon, in the Siberian region of Yakutia, is the coldest inhabited village on Earth. Each winter, it records some of the world's lowest temperatures and the town seems frozen in time.

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On 14 January, Oymyakon got so cold, its brand new thermometer broke after reaching a mind numbing -62C, reports the Siberian Times. In comparison, the only other places to get this cold or colder are unpopulated areas of Antarctica.

But locals have reported temperatures far colder than the official -62C on their properties, thanks to their own thermometers. For the town's 500 inhabitants, it's just business as usual. Oymyakon is the Pole of Cold, the point in the Northern Hemisphere where it gets the coldest. During the winter season, the temperature reaches an average of -45C. But life doesn't stop for a slight chill.

A group of Chinese tourists braved the freezing temperature and visited a spring over the weekend, where they were filmed dancing in their swimwear, earning the admiration of locals.

While a drop of snow leaves Western cities in panic, the inhabitants of the region of Yakutia have learned to live with the cold. Oymyakon's only school remains open until temperatures reach -52C and most of the town's business is done around ice-fishing, it's market

In February 1933, the town recorded -67.7C, which is the lowest ever temperature ever recorded in the world for an inhabited place.

Icy Neighborhood

Not too far from Oymyakon is the world's coldest city, Yakutsk, home to about 121,000 people. Temperatures in Yakutsk reach an average of -40C every winter.

But unlike its neighbor, the city is developed and manages to run in spite of the freezing cold. It harbors two airports, a university and several schools, theatres and museums.

However, the cold hard ground makes it hard to have funerals and it has been reported that the city's river, the Lena, can freeze solid, so much so that cars can easily drive on its surface.

Visitors that come to Yakutsk are warned against wearing glasses: they might freeze and stick to their heads. Better have frozen eyelashes.