For most cities with four distinct seasons, the cold of winter is but a matter of 2-3 months.

But for a few places with extreme cold, warmth is short-lived, and facing the cold head-on is a daily part of life.

On the banks of the Yana River is a town called Verkhoyansk. Although it is not the coldest place in the world, it is one of the coldest areas in the northern hemisphere, and it is the area with the largest temperature difference in the world, with the absolute temperature difference as high as 106℃.

Verkhoyansk is located one degree north of the Arctic Circle, and the nearest city is Yakutsk, about 675 kilometers to the southeast. The average temperature in Verkhoyansk is around -15°C throughout the year, and there is only a short summer here, with an average temperature of 16 degrees in July each year, which can be very cool.

On June 20, 2020, however, Verkhoyansk had an extremely high temperature of 38 degrees Celsius, breaking the record for the highest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic Circle. Between the end of November and the end of February, the Siberian cold front converges here for a long period, and winter temperatures usually fall between -50°C and -40°C, with absolute lows of -68°C. From September to March, Verkhoyansk receives an average of no more than five hours of sunshine per day, and almost none in December and January. It is hard to imagine how people live here.

A U.S. publication once named Verkhoyansk the "most dangerous place in the world". The reason why Verkhoyansk is so cold is due to two main factors: its geographical location and the surrounding terrain. Located in the Arctic Circle at a high latitude, warm sea breezes cannot reach Verkhoyansk. Verkhoyansk is surrounded on the east, west, and south by the Chersky Mountains and the Verkhoyansk Mountains respectively, and on the north by the cold Arctic Ocean. In short, the warm air is shielded from the cold air that swirls around the area all year round, and there is very little sunshine.

Despite the extreme cold, Verkhoyansk is not barren. Thanks to the Yana River, the vegetation density is one of the highest in Siberia and the Arctic Circle. The abundance of water and fertile soil make Verkhoyansk a place for fishing, as well as a producer of potatoes, rye, broad beans, and barley. In addition to agriculture, it is also a fur trading center and the center of a reindeer feeding area. There are highways, a river port, and a small airport.

The city will welcome a small number of tourists who like the cold to come and visit. However, airfare to Verkhoyansk is very expensive. And because it is a small airport, old airplanes are used, and there have been several serious air crashes. Therefore, it is not a good idea to travel to Verkhoyansk in winter when the weather is bad.