SOME PLACES ON Earth are so hot – or so cold – that it’s impossible to imagine how any living creature could survive there. When it comes to extreme temperatures, the following places are record-breakers:
… and the contenders for Hottest Place on Earth are:
• The Gandom Beriyan – meaning ‘Toasted Wheat’ – region that covers 480 square kilometres (185 square miles) of the Lut Desert in Iran. In 2005, temperatures of 70.7°C (159.3°F) were measured here – that’s hot enough to fry an egg. In fact, the region gets so hot that it defeats the survival skills of even the most primitive life forms – not even bacteria have been found here.
• El Azizia in Libya – on 13 September 1922, it achieved a high of around 57.8C (136°F).
• Death Valley in California – this rivals El Azizia with occasional highs of around 56.6°C (134°F).
• Dallol in Ethiopia – it may not be a gold medal winner, but Dallol remains a reliable contender for Hottest Place on Earth with average annual temperatures of 34.4°C (93.9°F).
When it comes to the prize for Coldest Place on Earth, there is really only one winner:
• Vostok in Antarctica – on 21 July 1983, the temperature plummeted to -89°C (-128°F). It hardly bears thinking about. But it isn’t always that bad. Sometimes Vostok gets positively balmy, with temperatures of -25°C to -19°C (-13°F to -2.2°F) – it’s enough to make you want to put on your shorts.
NB The South Pole comes in at a close second in winter, with average lows of around -60°C (-76°F).
Some places want to win all the prizes…
• Verkoyansk in Siberia. This contender for both Hottest and Coldest Place on Earth boasts winter temperatures of as low as -70°C (-94°F) while summer highs may soar to 37°C (98.6°F).
NB Deserts experience extremes of day and night-time temperatures, with the burning desert sun in the daytime easily heating sand or rocks to 60°–70°C (140°–158°F). But at night, all that heat dissipates into the atmosphere and temperatures plunge to below freezing.
If you can’t stand the constant damp and drizzle where you live and want to move to a nice, dry climate, here are a couple of options:
• Arica in Chile, which gets only 0.76 millimetres (0.03 inches) of rain per year. At that rate, it would take a century to fill a coffee cup.
• Antarctica – there is, of course, a lot of water in Antarctica but it’s all locked up in the ice sheet. With an average thickness of 2,200 metres (7,218 feet) the ice sheet contains around three-quarters of the world’s fresh water. If it were to melt, average sea levels would rise by about 70 metres (230 feet). But when it comes to rain, Antarctica receives very little – less than 5 centimetres (2 inches) of precipation per year, which is about the same as the Sahara and makes Antarctica technically a desert. In the interior, the region known as the Dry Valleys has not received rain, it is estimated, in two million years.
If you don’t want to drown, you should avoid:
• Lloro in Colombia. This receives an average of 1,330 centimetres (524 inches) of rain each year – or, to put it another way, that’s about 13 metres (43 feet).