Verkhoyansk (Russian:Верхоянск,IPA:[vʲɪrxɐˈjansk];Yakut:Верхоянскай,romanized: Verxoyanskay) is atown inVerkhoyansky District of theSakha Republic,Russia, located on theYana River in theArctic Circle, 92 kilometers (57 mi) fromBatagay, theadministrative center of the district, and 675 kilometers (419 mi) north ofYakutsk, thecapital of the Sakha republic. As of the2010 Census, its population was 1,311.[3] Verkhoyansk holds the record for the hottest temperature ever recorded north of the Arctic Circle, with 38.0 °C (100.4 °F), and it also holds the record for the coldest temperature ever recorded inAsia, −67.8 °C (−90.0 °F). The cold record is shared withOymyakon.
Verkhoyansk Верхоянск | |
|---|---|
Town under district jurisdiction[1] | |
| Other transcription(s) | |
| • Yakut | Верхоянскай |
 Pole of Cold in Verkhoyansk | |
 Flag _soviet.png) Coat of arms | |
Location of Verkhoyansk  | |
  Verkhoyansk Location of Verkhoyansk Show map of Russia Verkhoyansk Verkhoyansk (Sakha Republic) Show map of Sakha Republic | |
| Coordinates:67°33′N133°23′E / 67.550°N 133.383°E /67.550; 133.383 | |
| Country | Russia |
| Federal subject | Sakha Republic[1] |
| Administrative district | Verkhoyansky District[1] |
| Town | Verkhoyansk[1] |
| Founded | 1638[2][1] |
| Town status since | 1817 |
| Elevation | 127 m (417 ft) |
| Population | |
• Total | 1,311 |
| • Capital of | Town of Verkhoyansk[1] |
| • Municipal district | Verkhoyansky Municipal District[4] |
| • Urban settlement | Verkhoyansk Urban Settlement[4] |
| • Capital of | Verkhoyansk Urban Settlement[4] |
| Time zone | UTC+10 (MSK+7  [5]) |
| Postal code(s)[6] | 678530 |
| Dialing code(s) | +7 41165[7] |
| OKTMO ID | 98616103001 |
| 2010 Census | 1,311[3] |
|---|---|
| 2002 Census | 1,434[8] |
| 1989 Census | 1,883[9] |
| 1979 Census | 1,709[10] |
History
editCossacks founded anostrog in 1638,[2] 90 kilometers (56 mi) southwest of the modern town. The ostrog's name "Verkhoyansky", roughly translating from Russian as[thing/ostrog] on the Upper Yana (grammatically, it's only a masculine adjective), derived from its geographical location on the upper reaches of theYana River. In 1775, it was moved to the left bank of the Yana River to facilitate tax collection. It was granted town status in 1817.[11] Between the 1860s and 1917, the town was a place of political exile, with some of the more prominent exiles including thePolish writerWacław Sieroszewski, as well as Bolshevik revolutionariesIvan Babushkin andViktor Nogin.
Administrative and municipal status
editAs aninhabited locality, Verkhoyansk is classified as a town under district level jurisdiction.[1] Within theframework of administrative divisions, it is incorporated withinVerkhoyansky District as theTown of Verkhoyansk.[1] As amunicipal division, the Town of Verkhoyansk is incorporated within Verkhoyansky Municipal District as Verkhoyansk Urban Settlement.[4]
Economy and infrastructure
editThere is ariver port, an airport, a fur-collecting depot, and the center of a reindeer-raising area.
Geography
editVerkhoyansk gives its name to theVerkhoyansk Range, one of the main mountainous zones of theEastern Siberian System. The town is located close to the northwestern edge of theYana-Oymyakon Highlands, a cold and sparsely populated area.[12]
Religion
editOrthodox Christianity is the most widely professed faith in Verkhoyansk, with a significantnon-religious population.Shamanism andAiyy Faith also have a presence in the town.
Climate
editVerkhoyansk sees excessively cold winter temperatures and some of the greatest temperature differences on Earth between summer and winter. Average monthly temperatures range from −44.7 °C (−48.5 °F) in January to +16.5 °C (61.7 °F) in July. Mean monthly temperatures are below freezing from October through April and exceed +10 °C (50 °F) from June through August, with the intervening months of May and September constituting very short transitional seasons. Located within the Arctic Circle, Verkhoyansk has an extremesubarctic climate rather than atundra climate, dominated much of the year byhigh pressure. This has the effect of cutting off the region from warming influences in winter and together with a lack of cloud cover leads to extensive heat losses during the cooler months.
Verkhoyansk is one of the places considered the northernPole of Cold, the other beingOymyakon, located 629 km (391 miles) away by air. The lowest recorded temperature was −67.8 °C (−90.0 °F), recorded on January 15, 1885, and both February 5 and 7, 1892.[13][14] On 6 February 1933 however, the temperature at Oymyakon reached −67.7 °C (−89.9 °F), just barely above Verkhoyansk's record.[13][14] OnlyGreenland andAntarctica have recordedlower temperatures than Oymyakon or Verkhoyansk: the lowest directly recorded temperature at ground level is −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F), recorded at theVostok Station in Antarctica on 21 July 1983,[15][16] and a temperature of −93.2 °C (−135.8 °F) was recorded via satellite observations at theEast Antarctic Plateau inAntarctica on 10 August 2010.[17] TheWorld Meteorological Organization has recently recognized a temperature of −69.6 °C (−93.3 °F) measured in Greenland on 22 December 1991 as the lowest in the Northern Hemisphere. The record was measured at anautomatic weather station and was uncovered after nearly 30 years.[18]
In this area,temperature inversions consistently form in winter due to the extremely cold and dense air of theSiberian High pooling in deep hollows, so that temperatures increase rather than decrease with higher altitude. In Verkhoyansk it sometimes happens that the average minimum temperatures for January, February, and December are below −50 °C (−58 °F).
In its short summer, daytime temperatures over +30 °C (86 °F) are not uncommon. The average annual temperature for Verkhoyansk is −13.7 °C (7.3 °F). On 20 June 2020 Verkhoyansk recorded a temperature of +38.0 °C (100.4 °F),[19][20] yielding a temperature range of 105.8 °C (190.4 °F) based on reliable records, making it the largest temperature range in the world. It was also the highest temperature above the Arctic Circle ever recorded. Only a handful of towns in Siberia and Canada have temperature ranges of 100 °C (180 °F) or more, and Verkhoyansk is the only place on earth with a temperature range of 105 °C (189 °F) or higher. Verkhoyansk has never recorded a temperature above freezing between November 10 and March 14.[21]
Verkhoyansk has an extreme latitude temperature anomaly when compared withRøst off the coastline ofNorway. Both settlements are on67°N and almost on the same latitudal decimal. In spite of this, Røst is on average more than 45 °C (81 °F) milder during winter. In summer and particularly during July, on the other hand, Verkhoyansk is significantly warmer than its Norwegian counterpart.
Verkhoyansk has a dry climate with little rainfall or snowfall; the average annualprecipitation is 182 millimeters (7.2 in). Although no month can be described as truly wet, there are strong seasonal differences in precipitation, with the summer being much wetter than the winter; because the driest month (April) is in the "summer" and has less than one-third the precipitation of the wettest "winter" month (October), Verkhoyansk's climate technically qualifies as KöppenDsd, a classification found only in parts of eastern Siberia. The dryness experienced in winter is largely due to the dominance of high pressure at this time of year.
Finally, Verkhoyansk has very lowseasonal lag, with December being colder than February, and June warmer than August. Interestingly, a similar scenario can be encountered inPatagonia in theSouthern Hemisphere, where June is the coldest month in many areas.
| Climate data for Verkhoyansk (1991–2020, extremes 1869–present) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | −9.5 (14.9) | −0.3 (31.5) | 5.6 (42.1) | 14.3 (57.7) | 28.1 (82.6) | 38.0 (100.4) | 37.3 (99.1) | 33.7 (92.7) | 25.1 (77.2) | 14.5 (58.1) | 1.1 (34.0) | −5.3 (22.5) | 38.0 (100.4) |
| Mean maximum °C (°F) | −26.6 (−15.9) | −22.7 (−8.9) | −4.5 (23.9) | 7.3 (45.1) | 21.2 (70.2) | 29.7 (85.5) | 31.5 (88.7) | 28.2 (82.8) | 17.8 (64.0) | 4.3 (39.7) | −13.6 (7.5) | −23.8 (−10.8) | 4.1 (39.4) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | −41.6 (−42.9) | −36.7 (−34.1) | −18.8 (−1.8) | −1.8 (28.8) | 10.3 (50.5) | 20.6 (69.1) | 23.4 (74.1) | 19.2 (66.6) | 8.7 (47.7) | −8.5 (16.7) | −30.0 (−22.0) | −40.6 (−41.1) | −8.0 (17.6) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −44.7 (−48.5) | −42.1 (−43.8) | −28.9 (−20.0) | −10.9 (12.4) | 4.2 (39.6) | 13.9 (57.0) | 16.5 (61.7) | 12.1 (53.8) | 2.8 (37.0) | −13.4 (7.9) | −33.7 (−28.7) | −43.6 (−46.5) | −13.7 (7.3) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −47.7 (−53.9) | −46.3 (−51.3) | −37.4 (−35.3) | −20.4 (−4.7) | −2.0 (28.4) | 7.3 (45.1) | 10.0 (50.0) | 5.7 (42.3) | −1.9 (28.6) | −18.0 (−0.4) | −37.3 (−35.1) | −46.3 (−51.3) | −19.5 (−3.1) |
| Mean minimum °C (°F) | −55.2 (−67.4) | −54.0 (−65.2) | −49.2 (−56.6) | −35.8 (−32.4) | −13.2 (8.2) | −0.4 (31.3) | 1.9 (35.4) | −2.4 (27.7) | −10.9 (12.4) | −35.3 (−31.5) | −47.6 (−53.7) | −53.1 (−63.6) | −56.4 (−69.5) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −67.8 (−90.0) | −67.8 (−90.0) | −60.3 (−76.5) | −57.2 (−71.0) | −34.2 (−29.6) | −7.9 (17.8) | −3.2 (26.2) | −9.9 (14.2) | −21.7 (−7.1) | −48.7 (−55.7) | −57.2 (−71.0) | −64.5 (−84.1) | −67.8 (−90.0) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 6 (0.2) | 5 (0.2) | 5 (0.2) | 4 (0.2) | 16 (0.6) | 30 (1.2) | 34 (1.3) | 30 (1.2) | 22 (0.9) | 13 (0.5) | 11 (0.4) | 6 (0.2) | 182 (7.2) |
| Average extreme snow depth cm (inches) | 20 (7.9) | 22 (8.7) | 24 (9.4) | 18 (7.1) | 1 (0.4) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 5 (2.0) | 12 (4.7) | 16 (6.3) | 24 (9.4) |
| Average rainy days | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 10 | 0.4 | 0 | 0 | 61 |
| Average snowy days | 17 | 16 | 12 | 9 | 8 | 1 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 8 | 17 | 18 | 16 | 123 |
| Averagerelative humidity (%) | 74 | 74 | 69 | 63 | 58 | 57 | 61 | 69 | 74 | 78 | 77 | 75 | 69 |
| Mean monthlysunshine hours | 2 | 83.1 | 244.1 | 285.2 | 305.8 | 339.6 | 316.3 | 231.5 | 129.6 | 98.0 | 23.8 | 0 | 2,099 |
| Source 1: Погода и Климат[22] January record[23] | |||||||||||||
| Source 2:NOAA,[24] Infoclimat[25] | |||||||||||||
References
editNotes
edit- ^abcdefghiRegistry of the Administrative-Territorial Divisions of the Sakha Republic
- ^abЭнциклопедия Города России. Moscow:Большая Российская Энциклопедия. 2003. p. 69.ISBN 5-7107-7399-9.
- ^abcRussian Federal State Statistics Service (2011).Всероссийская перепись населения 2010 года. Том 1 [2010 All-Russian Population Census, vol. 1].Всероссийская перепись населения 2010 года [2010 All-Russia Population Census] (in Russian).Federal State Statistics Service.
- ^abcdLaw #173-Z #353-III
- ^"Об исчислении времени".Официальный интернет-портал правовой информации (in Russian). June 3, 2011. RetrievedJanuary 19, 2019.
- ^Почта России. Информационно-вычислительный центр ОАСУ РПО. (Russian Post).Поиск объектов почтовой связи (Postal Objects Search)(in Russian)
- ^"Климат Верхоянска - Погода и климат".
- ^Federal State Statistics Service (May 21, 2004).Численность населения России, субъектов Российской Федерации в составе федеральных округов, районов, городских поселений, сельских населённых пунктов – районных центров и сельских населённых пунктов с населением 3 тысячи и более человек [Population of Russia, Its Federal Districts, Federal Subjects, Districts, Urban Localities, Rural Localities—Administrative Centers, and Rural Localities with Population of Over 3,000](XLS).Всероссийская перепись населения 2002 года [All-Russia Population Census of 2002] (in Russian).
- ^Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 г. Численность наличного населения союзных и автономных республик, автономных областей и округов, краёв, областей, районов, городских поселений и сёл-райцентров [All Union Population Census of 1989: Present Population of Union and Autonomous Republics, Autonomous Oblasts and Okrugs, Krais, Oblasts, Districts, Urban Settlements, and Villages Serving as District Administrative Centers].Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 года [All-Union Population Census of 1989] (in Russian). Институт демографии Национального исследовательского университета: Высшая школа экономики [Institute of Demography at the National Research University: Higher School of Economics]. 1989 – viaDemoscope Weekly.
- ^Всесоюзная перепись населения 1979 г. Национальный состав населения по регионам России [All Union Population Census of 1979. Ethnic composition of the population by regions of Russia](XLS).Всесоюзная перепись населения 1979 года [All-Union Population Census of 1979] (in Russian). 1979 – viaDemoscope Weekly (website of the Institute of Demographics of the State University—Higher School of Economics.
- ^Поспелов Е.М. Географические названия России. Топонимический словарь.. — Москва: АСТ: Астрель, 2008. — С. 136.
- ^Верхоянский хребет — Россия — Планета Земля (in Russian)
- ^abN. A. Stepanova."On the Lowest Temperatures on Earth"(PDF).
- ^abWeather Underground - The Coldest Places on Earthhttps://www.wunderground.com/blog/weatherhistorian/the-coldest-places-on-earth
- ^"Global Weather & Climate Extremes". World Meteorological Organization. RetrievedDecember 23, 2015.
- ^"World: Lowest Temperature".World Meteorological Organization. Archived fromthe original on June 16, 2010. RetrievedDecember 23, 2015.
- ^"The Coldest Place in the World". NASA. RetrievedDecember 12, 2017.
- ^WMO verifies -69.6°C Greenland temperature as Northern hemisphere recordPress Release Number: 23092020; WMO, 23 September 2020.
- ^Sinclare, Terry (June 22, 2020)."A small town in Siberia has likely broken the Arctic high temperature record".Webcenter11. Gray Television, Inc. RetrievedJune 22, 2020.
- ^"Arctic Temperatures Hit Record High in Russia Amid Heat Wave". The Moscow Times. June 22, 2020. RetrievedJune 22, 2020.
- ^"Weather and Climate - Climate Monitor: The weather in Verkhoyansk" (in Russian). www.pogodaiklimat.ru. RetrievedDecember 25, 2013. Daily records on the right of the page; December–March records can be accessed via buttons at the bottom of the page.
- ^"Погода и Климат – Климат Верхоянск" (in Russian). Weather and Climate (Погода и климат). RetrievedNovember 8, 2021.
- ^Verkhoyansk Monument image:https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-JZsosJzSVV8/WJv6EuE-_QI/AAAAAAABRs0/BRgPwLTin-4/verkhoyansk-87.jpg?imgmax=1600
- ^"World Meteorological Organization Climate Normals for 1991–2020". World Meteorological Organization. RetrievedAugust 2, 2023.
- ^"Climatologie de l'année à Verkhoiansk" (in French). Infoclimat. RetrievedOctober 11, 2023.
Sources
edit- Official website of the Sakha Republic.Registry of the Administrative-Territorial Divisions of the Sakha Republic.Verkhoyansky District.(in Russian)
- Государственное Собрание (Ил Тумэн) Республики Саха (Якутия). Закон №173-З №353-III от 30 ноября 2004 г. «Об установлении границ и о наделении статусом городского и сельского поселений муниципальных образований Республики Саха (Якутия)», в ред. Закона №1058-З №1007-IV от 25 апреля 2012 г. «О внесении изменений в Закон Республики Саха (Якутия) "Об установлении границ и о наделении статусом городского и сельского поселений муниципальных образований Республики Саха (Якутия)"». Вступил в силу со дня официального опубликования. Опубликован: "Якутия", №245, 31 декабря 2004 г. (State Assembly (Il Tumen) of the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic. Law #173-Z No. 353-III of November 30, 2004On Establishing the Borders and on Granting the Urban and Rural Settlement Status to the Municipal Formations of the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic, as amended by the Law #1058-Z No. 1007-IV of April 25, 2012On Amending the Law of the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic "On Establishing the Borders and on Granting the Urban and Rural Settlement Status to the Municipal Formations of the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic". Effective as of the day of the official publication.).