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Coldest Temperature Ever Recorded In Antarctica

By Kamal Nayan | Update Date: Dec 11, 2013 01:27 PM EST

Through remote satellite measurements, scientists recently recorded temperature of 135.8 degrees below zero in Antarctica. It is the lowest temperature ever recorded on earth.

However the measurements are unofficial and might not get a place in the official record book.

In August 2010 this temperature was recorded by NASA satellite. The second most chilling temperature was recorded on July 31 of this year measuring –135.3 degrees.

“I’ve never been in conditions that cold, and I hope I never am,” said ice scientist Ted Scambos of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo according to USA Today. “I am told that every breath is painful, and you have to be extremely careful not to freeze part of your throat or lungs when inhaling.”

“The –135.8-degree reading is 50 degrees colder than anything that has ever been seen in Alaska or Siberia or certainly North Dakota,” he added.

The natural course of winter in Antarctica is similar to Southern Hemisphere that is in the months of June, July and August.

The official recorded being measured by a thermometer is –128.6 degrees that is in Vostok, Antarctica back in 1983. The official keepers of world weather records are The World Meteorological Organization who only recognizes weather that are measured by thermometers on location and discarded those which are done remotely via satellites.

“Vostok is still the world’s coldest recorded location,” said Randy Cerveny, an Arizona State University professor of geography to USA Today. “They are using remote sensing, not standard weather stations, so we at the World Meteorological Organization will not recognize that.”

Vostok, the officially world’s coldest recorded location is a Russian research station that is about 600 miles from the South Pole. Here the highest temperature recorded ever was 4 degrees.

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