Dhe winter in Germany can’t quite make up its mind to cover the country with snow and ice. In Asia and America, on the other hand, there are cities where there is guaranteed to be frozen water, snow caps on the houses, freezing cold, crunching snow and often even a magical world of frost and ice. If you go there, you should wrap up warm – after all, you have to reckon with minus temperatures of 40, 50 degrees.
Yakutsk: Frozen Vegetables and Ice Museum
Winter in Siberia sounds like freezing cold anyway. In Yakutsk, however, it is particularly cold. With temperatures that often drop to minus 45 degrees, Yakutsk is the coldest city in the world. Winter here, on the banks of the frozen Lena, lasts from October to May, with December and January being particularly frosty.
The golden spiers of the Transfiguration Cathedral now have white ice caps. At the farmer’s market in the capital of the Republic of Sakha, also known as Yakutia, not only is the fish frozen, milk, sausage and vegetables are also only sold frozen.
Reindeer sleighs drive on the streets and car engines are not switched off because otherwise they would not start again until summer. Especially last winter, people in Yakutsk suffered from the extreme cold, as this video shows:
People in Yakutsk freeze at up to -47 degrees
In the Russian city of Yakutsk, children are not allowed to go to school and people do not want to go out on the streets. The reason is the Siberian cold. In some regions of Siberia it is currently colder than it has been in decades.
Those who prefer to go indoors can learn about archeology and ethnography at the Ethnographic Museum of the Northern Peoples, see the Mammoth Museum, or stroll through the glittering halls of the Museum of the Eternal Ice in the Chochur Muran glacier. One of the highlights is the “Treasury of Yakutia” with a collection of precious stones that Yakutsk is famous for.
Quite cool in the literal sense is a detour to the towns of Oymyakon or Verkhoyansk, which are two days’ journey away. They are considered the cold poles of the inhabited areas of the world: 60 degrees below zero are not uncommon here.
Minneapolis: Heated Ice and Frozen Pants
Once in winter, on New Year’s Day, America’s best ice hockey players take to the open air in the National Hockey League. This year Minneapolis hosted the NHL Winter Classics – and it was colder than any other city before. “I was looking over my shoulder to see if there was a polar bear somewhere. It was so cold out there,” said Minnesota Wild striker Marcus Foligno, describing the match, for which the ice had to be heated because otherwise it would have been too dull.
Minneapolis is mostly below zero from November to March. It is not uncommon for the thermometer to drop to 40 degrees below zero
Quelle: Getty Images/joe daniel price
Not only professionals go on the ice in the cold metropolis on the Mississippi. While elsewhere people hole up in their homes, ice skaters frolic on frozen lakes and open-air ice rinks across the city. Pond hockey and broomball, a variant with sticks resembling brooms, are played. Hot cider and hot chocolate are available to warm you up.
Crossing the ice on a fat bike: cyclists also venture out on frozen lakes in Minneapolis
Those: Getty Images / Per Breiehagen
Minneapolis is also known for its Winter Carnival and the largest winter beer festival in the Midwest. It takes place in the open air, you don’t need refrigerators for it. From November to March, temperatures in the city are mostly below zero. It is not uncommon for the thermometer to drop to 40 degrees below zero.
During the winter, artist Tom Grotting places frozen denim pants at various locations around town
Quelle: pa/abaca/TNS/ABACA
The artist Tom Grotting also takes advantage of this. Since 2013, his temporary installations called “Frozen Pants” have graced the city every winter – empty denim pants set up in various locations; since the pant legs are frozen, they can stand up by themselves.
Ulan Bator: Coldest capital in the world
The winters in the capital of Mongolia are so cold that the average annual temperature is only minus two degrees, even with summer days up to 30 degrees. This makes Ulan Bator the coldest capital in the world. The city is at its liveliest in winter, when nomads move from the countryside to the metropolis of 1.5 million people surrounded by peaks.
The annual average temperature in Ulan Bator is only minus two degrees
What: Getty Images/ariukamo
The icy winds also come from the mountains, which make the cold feel even worse. Lakes and rivers are frozen and the air is so cold that the little snow shimmers like dust. The coldest month is January with up to minus 25 degrees. Then a bell of smog often hangs over the prefabricated housing estates and yurt quarters.
When spring begins in March, the Mongolians celebrate the big winter festival. Temperatures climbed above zero for the first time in May. Then it’s time to enjoy the short summer.
Winnipeg: World’s largest snow maze
Temperatures in Winnipeg remain well below freezing for five months, which residents of the Canadian provincial capital of Manitoba enjoy with relish. There are ice rinks everywhere; even on the duck pond in the zoo, where you can see arctic animals up close. With cross-country ski runs, toboggan runs and ice-skating rinks, the parks become places where winter is celebrated.
In the Canadian provincial capital of Winnipeg, people know how to enjoy the months of cold weather
Quelle: Getty Images/Ingram Publishing
Traditionally, the spectacular “Crashed Ice” ice skate race with its icy obstacle course also makes a guest appearance in Winnipeg. And because there is enough snow and ice, every year they build the world’s largest snow maze, covering 240,000 square meters, in St. Adolphe south of Winnipeg. From January to March you can get lost in icy corridors.
Every winter, St. Adolphe, south of Winnipeg, is home to the world’s largest snow maze
Quelle: pa/empics/JOHN WOODS
In addition, Winnipeg has hosted the “Warming Huts” competition every winter for the past ten years, in which international architects realize their – mostly unconventional – ideas of warming huts. They range from wooden barrels with bathtubs to huts with sun reflectors and stylized shower cubicles in which you can “sing yourself warm”.
Beginning in October, temperatures in Winnipeg regularly drop below zero and remain so through April. January and February are the coldest with up to minus 23 degrees.
Nur-Sultan: Icy atmosphere instead of ice sculptures
The “egg” glitters golden in the Bayteker, the “Tree of Life”, which particularly stands out from all the modern buildings of Kazakhstan’s futuristic capital. Under the snow and ice, Nur-Sultan, which was called Astana until 2019, looks even more surreal.
The Bajteker (“Tree of Life”) tower is the landmark of Kazakhstan’s capital, Nur-Sultan
Source: pa / Sergei Bobylev / TASS / dpa
In winter, ice skaters usually frolic on the frozen Ischim River, while the snow-covered embankment becomes a giant toboggan run. You can also rent a “vatrushka,” a winter banana boat variant that lets you slide across the ice.
Even the little ones in Nur-Sultan are used to the cold – they still have fun on the frozen Ishim River
Quelle: pa / AA / Meiramgul Kussainova
In the cold season, sculptures and dream worlds made of blocks of ice are raised in the center – at least that was the case until last winter. This winter, however, the fun on the ice was called off. After protests against the high gas and oil prices, which were brutally suppressed by the authoritarian government, a ban on public gatherings and a night-time curfew were imposed. Since then, an icy, tense atmosphere has prevailed in the city.
And it’s likely to last: Winter usually lasts from November to April in the metropolis in the middle of the steppes of northern Kazakhstan, with an average temperature of minus 15 degrees. On particularly frosty days, the thermometer even drops to 52 degrees below zero.
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Source: WELT/Nicole Fuchs-Wiecha