At the bottom of the world, the thermometer has gone in the opposite direction from almost everywhere else. Antarctica's Concordia research station — run jointly by France and Italy — logged a low of minus 119.4 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 84.1 degrees Celsius) on July 18, according to station data reported by Live Science. It is the coldest temperature measured anywhere on Earth since 2012.
Concordia sits on the high Antarctic plateau at an elevation of about 3,233 meters (10,607 feet), one of the most hostile places humans live year-round. In the middle of the southern winter, the station experiences months of polar night — no sunlight at all — which allows heat to radiate into space night after night. Clear skies, extremely dry air, and calm conditions let temperatures plunge far below what even the South Pole experiences in most years.
The reading stands in sharp contrast to the rest of the planet. While Concordia shivered at record lows, much of the Northern Hemisphere was dealing with relentless summer heat, with heat warnings stretching from Europe to North America. Researchers at the station, sometimes called 'astronauts of ice,' live in isolation for months under these conditions.
Scientists note that such extreme cold events are consistent with the region's seasonal cycle, even as the broader Antarctic continent — like the rest of the world — continues to show long-term warming trends. The last time a colder temperature was recorded was in 2012, also at a high-elevation Antarctic station.
