Verkhoyansk in Siberia holds the lowest temperature ever recorded where people live year-round, −67.8 °C (−90 °F), with Oymyakon a tenth of a degree behind and Yakutsk third at −64.4 °C, as of November 2026. This ranks communities with a well-documented official record (not every inhabited place) by their all-time record low, not their yearly average; for that see The Coldest Capital Cities in the World.
Rule: a place counts if people live there year-round, as of November 2026, and it has a documented official record. The ranking is the lowest officially recorded air temperature at a weather station in or beside a permanently inhabited town, village or city, in °C with the °F equivalent. This is not every inhabited place on Earth. It covers places with a well-documented official record of −56.1 °C or colder, built from Environment Canada’s list of lowest readings (checked down to this cut-off) and from published climate tables for Russia and Alaska, where no single complete list exists; a Russian or Alaskan community with an undocumented colder reading could be missing, and Ust-Nera, Tomtor, Delyankir, Eldikan and Khandyga could not be sourced. Research stations and staffed outposts (Antarctic stations, Eureka, Alert, Summit) are left out, as are non-community sites: Snag, Yukon (−63.0 °C, 3 February 1947), Prospect Creek, Alaska (a pipeline camp) and Shepherd Bay, Nunavut. Fort Good Hope’s disputed −61.7 °C (1910, a suspected thermometer error) is not counted; its row uses the −56.2 °C in its climate table, which the source dates to January 1917 or February 1947. Verkhoyansk (−67.8 °C) and Oymyakon (−67.7 °C) are officially a tenth of a degree apart; Guinness names Oymyakon as the holder and notes that climatologists have questioned the 1892 reading, but this table uses the official figures as published, so Verkhoyansk is first and there is no tie.[1][2][3] Equal values share a rank. *Khatanga’s −59 °C is published only to the whole degree, so it could equal or beat the two −59.4 °C records; it is placed below them as listed.[13] Dates are as published; “date not given” means the source lists the value without one. Population is the latest census or estimate in the source, with its year. Size of place: village under 2,000 people, town 2,000–10,000, city over 10,000. January means use 1991–2020 normals where stated (Fort Vermilion 1961–1990, Iroquois Falls 1971–2000, Zhigansk 1948–2011; other Russian periods are not stated); Fort Resolution’s is not stated.
The Top 10
#1
Verkhoyansk, Russia — −67.8 °C
Verkhoyansk, on the Yana River in Sakha (Yakutia), holds the lowest temperature recorded at any place where people live year-round: −67.8 °C (−90.0 °F), logged on 5 and 7 February 1892, with an earlier reading of the same figure on 15 January 1885.[1] Guinness lists Oymyakon as the holder but says the World Meteorological Organization has Verkhoyansk sharing the record, and adds that climatologists have questioned the 1890s spirit-thermometer reading. Here the official 0.1 °C gap decides the order. The town counted 1,311 people at the 2010 census, and its January mean is about −44.7 °C (1991–2020). No verified video was available, so an icon is shown.
#2
Oymyakon, Russia — −67.7 °C
Oymyakon, the village most often called the coldest inhabited place, has an official low of −67.7 °C (−89.9 °F) on 6 February 1933.[2][3] A monument in the village square cites an unofficial −71.2 °C from January 1924, a figure that is widely repeated but not an accepted station record, so it is not used here. The 462 residents counted in 2010 live with a January mean near −45.7 °C (1991–2020). The video is a documentary on daily life in the village.
#3
Yakutsk, Russia — −64.4 °C
Yakutsk, the capital of Sakha, is by far the largest place on the list: 355,443 people at the 2021 census.[4] Its record is −64.4 °C (−83.9 °F) on 5 February 1891, and its January mean of about −36.9 °C (1991–2020) is the coldest of any major city. Buildings stand on stilts because the ground is permafrost. The video is a Free Documentary film on life in the city.
#4
Mayo, Yukon, Canada — −62.2 °C
Mayo, a village on the Stewart River in central Yukon with 188 residents in 2021, holds the coldest record of any Canadian community with a permanent population: −62.2 °C (−80 °F), set on 3 February 1947.[5][6] That cold snap also gave Canada its national record of −63.0 °C at Snag, a nearby weather-station and airfield camp rather than a community, which is left out under this post’s rule. Some sources date Mayo’s reading to 2 February. The video is the village’s own introduction.
#5
Fort Vermilion, Alberta, Canada — −61.2 °C
Fort Vermilion, a hamlet on the Peace River in northern Alberta, recorded −61.2 °C (−78.2 °F) on 11 January 1911, the second-coldest in Canada after Mayo among the communities in this table.[6][7] It had 753 residents in 2021. The 1911 reading is more than a century old, so it should be read as a historical record rather than a modern normal; its January mean is −22.7 °C (1961–1990). No verified video was available, so an icon is shown.
#6
Fort Yukon, Alaska, United States — −61.1 °C
Fort Yukon, a Gwich’in community on the Yukon River just north of the Arctic Circle, recorded −78 °F (−61.1 °C) on 14 January 1934, the coldest reading found for an Alaskan community in the sources used here (an exhaustive Alaska list was not available).[8] The 2020 census counted 428 residents. Alaska’s overall record, −80 °F at Prospect Creek, was set at a pipeline camp and is not counted. The video is a PolarTREC educator’s film from the village.
#7
Susuman, Russia — −60.6 °C
Susuman, a gold-mining town in Russia’s Magadan Oblast, has a record low of −60.6 °C (−77.1 °F) in the climate table Wikipedia cites, with no date given.[9] It counted 4,439 people at the 2021 census and has a January mean of about −37.4 °C. This is the largest town in the top ten after Yakutsk. No verified video was available, so an icon is shown.
#8
Zhigansk, Russia — −60.0 °C
Zhigansk, on the Lena River in northern Yakutia, has a recorded low of −60.0 °C (−76.0 °F) in the climate table Wikipedia cites; the source gives no date for it.[10] The town had 3,420 people at the 2010 census. The figure comes from a climate table without a stated date, which makes it the least well documented in the top five. No verified video was available, so an icon is shown.
#9
Old Crow, Yukon, Canada — −59.4 °C
Old Crow, the only Yukon community with no road access and home of the Vuntut Gwitchin, recorded −59.4 °C (−74.9 °F) on 5 January 1975, and had 236 residents in 2021.[11] Its January mean is about −28.7 °C (1991–2020). The video is a CBC News report on the community’s climate ambitions.
#9
Fort Resolution, Northwest Territories, Canada — −59.4 °C
Fort Resolution, on Great Slave Lake, tied Old Crow with −59.4 °C (−74.9 °F) on 8 January 1936 (Environment Canada’s list also shows 18 and 21 January at the same value).[6][12] It had 412 residents in 2021. Its own Wikipedia page calls this the Northwest Territories record, but the territory’s Fort Smith page claims a milder −57.2 °C, so the sources disagree; this post follows the Canadian list. No verified video was available, so an icon is shown.
