Lowest temperature recorded on Earth

What to remember

On 21 July 1983, Vostok Station recorded 89.2 °C below zero, the lowest reliably measured natural temperature on Earth. The station lies at the southern Pole of Cold, inland in Princess Elizabeth Land, Antarctica.

Vostok was founded by the Soviet Union in 1957, during the International Geophysical Year, to study the climate. It is the most isolated research station on the continent. The site was chosen because it allows deep drilling, and research there includes ice core drilling and magnetometry. The base sits above Lake Vostok, the southernmost lake in the world.

Its name comes from the Vostok, lead ship of the First Russian Antarctic Expedition, captained by Fabian von Bellingshausen. The second ship, Mirny, gave its name to another station. Records of this kind count only values officially observed, and colder spells may have gone unmeasured in remote areas without an official station.