New record: coldest temperature ever in northern hemisphere found

GENEVA – For all the recent talk about global warming, climate historians researching the extreme temperatures of the past have uncovered what the United Nations weather agency calls a new record in the northern hemisphere – near – 70 degrees Celsius (-93 F) was recorded almost three decades ago in Greenland. World weather organizations publicly confirmed on Wednesday the all-weather cold reading for the hemisphere: -69.6 degrees Celsius recorded on December 22, 1991 at an automatic weather station at a remote site called Klinck, not far from the furthest point. high of the Greenland ice cap.

“In the age of climate change, much attention is focused on new heat records,” WMO Secretary-General Professor Petteri Taalas said in a statement. “This newly recognized cold record is an important reminder of the stark contrasts that exist on this planet. ”

The temperature tally exceeds -67.8 degrees Celsius twice recorded at the Siberian sites of Oimekon in 1933 and Verkhoyanksk in 1892. The latter Russian site has made headlines in recent months to record what may be a new record temperature north of the Arctic Circle during heatwave in the region.

The new low has been confirmed by so-called “climate sleuths” working with the WMO Archives on Weather and Climate Extremes in Geneva.

The archive, which was established in 2007, looks at historical data looking for records such as high and low temperatures, the heaviest precipitation, and even the “heaviest hailstones” and “the heaviest lightning bolts.” long ”.

He said the record was revealed after “an international group of polar scientists from the WMO Blue Ribbon tracked down the scientists originally involved” from the Klinck Automatic Weather Station which operated for two years at the start. from the 1990s.

The coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth was -89.2 Celsius (-128.6 F) recorded in 1983 at the high altitude weather station of Vostok in Antarctica, WMO said.