Record #00287Nature archive
Lowest Air Temperature Recorded on Earth
On 21 July 1983, Vostok Station in Antarctica measured an air temperature of -89.2°C, the global lowest-air-temperature record recognized by the World Meteorological Organization.
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Current Record
-89.2°C
Current record value
- Holder
- Vostok Station
- Location
- Vostok Station, Antarctica
- Start date
- 1983-07-21
- Record status
- Verified · currentReport an issue
Overview
Archive NoteVostok Station stands on the high interior Antarctic ice plateau. Long polar nights, calm conditions, and clear skies can produce intense cooling. WMO verifies -89.2°C on 21 July 1983 and explains why -89.4°C appearing in some sources is a conversion error.
Russia's Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring documents an earlier -88.3°C extreme at Vostok in 1960, which stood for roughly 23 years before the 1983 record.
The measure is observed air temperature at a weather station, not a satellite estimate of Antarctic ice-surface temperature.
Record history
1 Milestones- -89.2 °CVostok StationVostok Station, AntarcticaCurrent Record
Sources
Evidence & ReferencesThe record value on this page is organized from the public sources above. Measurement methods may differ; JiLuDB follows the unified method described for each entry.
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