"Pupils across at least ten villages in the remote Russian region of Yakutia have been ordered to stay at home and study via distance learning as the mercury outside touched -50C (-58F), reports rt.com.
On Monday, November 22, the local government instructed 700 students to stay at home after a low of -50C (-58F) was recorded in the village of Kylaiy, in the Ust-Aldan district of Yakutia province — not too far from the region’s largest city of Yakutsk.
Other notable lows in the province include the -45C (-49F) in Batamay; the -44.8C (-48.6F) in Kerbo, Central Siberia; the -39.6C (-39.3F) in Verkhoyansk.
The exemption has only been granted to young children, meaning some older students are still being told to attend lessons “depending on the temperature” — the mercury fell to -38C (-36.4F) on Monday in Yakutsk, where classes are going on as usual.
Much of Asia has been engulfed by strong Arctic air masses in recent weeks, and temperature departures of as much as -22C below the seasonal average have been suffered in the nations of Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and China, among others.
This early-season polar cold hasn’t just been confined to the land, either.
As reported by thetimes.co.uk, at least 20 ships remain stuck in sea ice off Russian coastlines after an ‘unexpected early freeze took shipping companies by surprise’ — some could be stranded for months as they await icebreakers, continues the article.
In recent years, ships traversing Russia’s northern coast have had a relatively easy time of it in the months of October and November — but trends change, and this year, as our planet continues its descent into its next bout of global cooling, the ice is re-freezing early and quickly.
Large parts of the remote Arctic waters were covered in thick sea-ice by late October, reports thebarentsobserver.com, “and the white sheet is quickly getting thicker and harder to navigate.”
Arctic sea ice has now topped 10 million km2 (10.17 million as of Nov 21st) — the second highest ice extent of any of the last 15 years.
Additionally, the years 2008 and 2005 are on course to be eclipsed in the coming days/weeks, as are many from the early-2000s and mid/late-1990s, meaning that 2021 will soon claim the title of ‘the highest Arctic sea ice extent of the past two decades’ (since 2001).
ANTARCTICA
As I reported last month, the South Pole logged its coldest 6-month spell in recorded history.
Between the months of April and September, the South Pole averaged a temperature of -61.1C (-78F).
Simply put, this was the region’s coldest 6-month spell ever recorded, comfortably usurping the previous coldest ‘coreless winter‘ on record — the -60.6C (-77F) set back in 1976 (solar minimum of weak cycle 20).
And now, in late-November, and so well into the Antarctic summer, the unusual chill is persisting: Dome A and Concordia are still registering “very rare readings of below -50C (-58F),” according to data compiled by @extremetemps on Twitter.
Concordia Research Station, a French–Italian research facility built 3,233 m (10,600 ft) above sea level on the Antarctic Plateau, actually dipped to -52.1C (-61.8F) on Sunday, November 21.
It is incredibly rare to see temperatures this low so late into the season. Worth noting: Antarctica’s coldest-ever December temperature stands at -52C (-61.6F)."
