People who live near the equator may find temperatures below 70° F cold, but for those who reside in Yakutsk, Russia, it’d feel like summer. On a typical day in January, the coldest month, the ‘high’ is usually -40°F (-40°C), and there are a mere 3-hours of daylight per day. Yakutsk is a major port on the Lena River and is served by the Yakutsk Airport as well as the smaller Magan Airport. This Russian city is a major supplier of diamonds and responsible for a fifth of the world’s production of diamonds.
Yakutsk is the biggest city built on continuous permafrost, and most houses there are built on concrete piles. Yakutsk has a distinct inland location, being almost 1000 kilometers from the Pacific Ocean, which coupled with the northern latitude means exposure to severe winters and also lack of temperature moderation, which sees July temperatures soar to an above-normal average for this parallel, with the July average being comparable to summer temperatures in Paris, Moscow, Sydney, Cape Town and on average warmer than the Los Angeles coastline.
