Even the eyelashes freeze: Russia sees minus 88.6 degrees F

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Even the eyelashes freeze: Russia sees minus 88.6 degrees F

The Associated Press | Tuesday, January 16, 2018 8:39 p.m.

sakhalife.ru photo via AP

In this photo taken on Sunday, Jan. 14, 2018, Anastasia Gruzdeva, left, poses for selfie with her friends as the temperature dropped to about -58 degrees Fahrenheit in Yakutsk, Russia. Temperatures in the remote, diamond-rich Russian region of Yakutia have dropped to near-record lows, plunging to -88.6 degrees Fahrenheit in some areas.

MOSCOW — Even thermometers can't keep up with the plunging temperatures in Russia's remote Yakutia region, which hit minus 88.6 degrees Fahrenheit in some areas Tuesday.

In Yakutia — a region of 1 million people about 3,300 miles east of Moscow — students routinely go to school even in minus 40 degrees. But school was canceled Tuesday throughout the region and police ordered parents to keep their children inside.

Extreme cold breaks thermometer in vlllage of Oymyakon https://t.co/lVnJH5YvKx #Video : Anastasia Gruzdeva @anastasiagav pic.twitter.com/QM4T91lwtr

— Roberto Blizzard (@VeganYogaDude) January 16, 2018

In the village of Oymyakon, one of the coldest inhabited places on earth, state-owned Russian television showed the mercury falling to the bottom of a thermometer that was only set up to measure down to minus 50 degrees. In 2013, Oymyakon recorded an all-time low of minus 98 Fahrenheit.

Good day! -46.5C on my balcony in #Yakutsk . Outside it should be colder, as each building gives warmth... pic.twitter.com/DeGARuGUfq

— Bolot Bochkarev (@yakutia) January 13, 2018

Over the weekend, two men froze to death when they tried to walk to a nearby farm after their car broke down. Three other men with them survived because they were wearing warmer clothes, investigators reported.

Oymyakon: Coldest settlement on earth hit -62C - then the thermometer broke https://t.co/hunz4Tm7r7

— IBTimes UK (@IBTimesUK) January 15, 2018

But the press office for Yakutia's governor said Tuesday that all households and businesses in the region have working central heating and access to backup power generators.

A dog stands guard in Yakutsk, Russia on a minus 58-degree day -- and more on daily life in the coldest place on Earth https://t.co/Z3WyOMIqJi pic.twitter.com/qyleKOoObE

— Planet Green (@PlanetGreen) January 10, 2018

Residents of Yakutia are no strangers to cold weather and this week's cold spell was not even dominating local news headlines Tuesday.

But some media outlets published cold-weather selfies and stories about stunts in the extreme cold. Women posted pictures of their frozen eyelashes, while YakutiaMedia published a picture of Chinese students who got undressed to take a plunge in a thermal spring.