The coldest place on Earth could leave an ill-equipped wanderer suffering from frostbite in just two minutes. That’s because this area of the East Antarctic Plateau can reach temperatures as low as 135 degrees Fahrenheit below zero, NASA says, and that’s on a clear winter night. What’s even more surprising, though, is that this area of the world is actually getting colder.
Exposure to such extreme temperatures requires quite a bit of preparation and gear to survive without long-standing damage to your body, too. Exposure to 95 degrees F below zero temperatures alone can leave you suffering from frostbite in just two minutes. So, at 135 degrees F below, the coldest place on Earth could leave you suffering even faster.
These temperatures are astounding because they’re even much colder than some of the temperatures that the Red Planet sees during winter, and it’s further from the Sun than we are! This location has held hard to the moniker of the coldest place on Earth since NASA recorded temperatures there back in 2013.
Now, almost ten years later, nothing has changed, which is intriguing because global temperatures around the world have definitely risen somewhat in that time span. So, it does make you wonder just how long until this area of the planet is affected by the ongoing climate change issues.
Or, perhaps we’ll make use of one of the many climate change responses that folks have come up with over the years. Either way, it really shouldn’t be surprising to learn that the coldest place on Earth is somewhere in the middle of the Antarctic. In fact, it’s very fitting that the coldest place on our planet is perhaps one of the furthest from civilization, too.
