Siberian villages are the coldest places in the world now! Woo hoo!

The only website that gives the full answer to the question, “Which places are the coldest on the planet now?” is Ogimet.com. Check it!

Currently, the world’s coldest place is Oymyakon (also known as Ojmjakon) in East Yakutia, Siberia / Russia). It’s -46.9C now.

Other top coldest places belong to Yakutian (Siberian) villages:

2. Segen-Kyuel’, -46.4 °C
3. Tompo, -44.4 °C
4. Batamaj, -43.7 °C
5. Ust’- Moma, -43.1 °C
6. Curapca, -43.0 °C
7. Verhojansk, -42.9 °C

Do you know what? This winter will be coldest in Yakutia (East Siberia/Yakutia) definitely, as such lowest temperatures are usual for this region.

Vladimir Potapov during his snowmobile expedition in the Arctic zone of Yakutia, Siberia, Russia. Early November 2011.

More about 2011 Arctic Snowmobile Expedition to Laptev Sea in Yakutia, Siberia / Russia.

Reindeer sledding journey in the world's coldest inhabited valley of Oymyakon in Yakutia, Siberia, Russia

More about The world’s coldest reindeer sledding in Oymyakon.

Yesterday was a turning day in Yakutsk. It looked like the Winter said, “Ok, no more games with mild winter weather. Let’s have the real cold come right now and for a long time.”

The day didn’t promise anything extraordinary. It was pretty regular in the beginning. -3C and light snow. By the end of a work day, something happened. Winds started blowing furiously and snow descended in abundance. It was the Arctic-like blizzard that lasted, unfortunately, not so long.

Cool anyway! People liked it. See more snowstorm photographs and a video.

After one-hour storm:

To see the progress of the winter start in the Siberian city of Yakutsk, check the last post at eYakutia.com.

The 2011 Uummannaq Polar Institute Summer Expedition. To the North of Greenland.

Aaaaa, it’s my big honour to be one of Ole Jorgen Hammeken‘s many friends. He is the most recognizable Greenlandic man, who attracts the world’s attention to Greenland, its people and climate issues.

It were him and his wonderful wife, who run together Uummannaq Children’s Home in the settlement called Uummannaq.

It was them, who host Galya Morrell and Joel Spiegelman‘s Uummannaq Music project.

Certainly, they are those people, who share Uummannaq Polar Institute‘s vision, i.e. to conserve Greenland’s local culture and promote educational programs for young Inuit people.

UPI was founded in 2007 by Ann Andreasen and was inaugurated in 2008 by HSH the Prince Albert II of Monaco, Jean Malaurie, a distinguished French ethnographer, and by Arthur Chilingarov, polar explorer and Vice-President of the Russian Parliament.

Among other UPI’s programs is an hour and a half movie called Inuk (I wrote much about this amazing movie on this blog under the tag Inuk). The film which won the coveted Haskell Wexler Award for Cinematography at the Woodstock Film Festival during October 2010, is directed by Mike Magidson and the screenplay is co-written by him and Jean-Michel Huctin. More at http://blog.inuk-film.com/

Currently I’ve got two good news about UPI:

1. It launched its own facebook page called Uummannaq Polar Institute. Enjoy and support the authentic way of the Greenlandic life with UPI.

By the way, UPI online page is http://uummannaqmusic.com/upi/

2. UPI doesn’t have break even in summer. As you know, life never stops boiling in Uummannaq! UPI fb page’s last status says:

As soon as Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II and her husband H.R.H. Prince Henrik of Denmark departed from Uummannaq, a new expedition has left to the North. Ole Jorgen Hammeken along with Jaakuaraq, Aalibarti, Hivshu and children from UCH are heading to Qaanaaq in 4 small boats…

So far they reached the southernmost settlement in Avannersuaq (Thule district) : Savissivik. Tomorrow the crew will head to Qaanaaq, or maybe even further – to Greenland’s northernmost settlement : Siorapaluk.

Uummannaq Polar Institute is worth to follow!

Feel to share the info on Uummannaq Polar Institute

A tidewater glacier on Svalbard during last week s Lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic Expeditions adventure in the Arctic.

Today is Ice Photo Wednesday run by Polar Explorer Eric Larsen (www.ericlarsenexplore.com) on Facebook (see his page) and #IcePhoto on Twitter.

Ice Photo Wednesday is the day, when anyone are welcome to share their love of ice, cold and snow with the rest of the world. How does it work?

Every morning on Wednesday, Eric Larsen – it was him, who invented the event – announces the start of The Ice Photo Day. He publishes his own fascinating “ice” photographs and ask his readers and followers to do the same… And you know what? People do share pictures of gorgeous ice and magnificant snow.

When Eric see new pics, he resharing them on his Facebook and Twitter accounts and give their authors big publicity and promotion. If the famous American explorer is online… hey, he can be connected even from the Arctic or the Everest top, you might see his fantastic photographs.

Give a try and join Eric on his facebook page and Twitter using the hashtag #IcePhoto.

Meanwhile, enjoy Mr. Larsen’s ice photographs of the Arctic Ocean, Norway’s Svalbard, and Everest!

Saying a lot of sincere thanks to him for permission to show his pics on ColdUnited.com. It’s a big honor! Here and further all captions to ice photographs are given by Eric Larsen himself.

More ice!

Remember, it's cool to be cold!

Cooling you off with an Ice photo...

Incredible week in Svalbard. Definitely great to be back in the land of ice!

Does the warm weather mean that I am running out of IcePhotos? Absolutely not! Time to share the cold, snow and ice. This week: Hoar frost on the Arctic Ocean.

Sharing my love of ice, cold and snow with the rest of the world... Sea Ice while flying over Svalbard.

On Everest looking back toward Camp 1.

See tons of magic ice pictures on Facebook and Twitter.

Who is Eric Larsen?
In November 2009 Polar explorer Eric Larsen began the Save the Poles Expedition a first-ever journey to the South Pole, North Pole and summit of Mt. Everest in a continuous 365-day period. His purpose? To travel to the “front lines” of global warming to document the changes occurring in these last great frozen places.
Website, Blog, RSS, Facebook, Twitter.

Okey, this time NPR reporters turn face to the Arctic issues. The agency sends its reporters to the far North and gets evidences of the thawing Arctic. Click here to see NPR’s dispatches.

Can you imagine? When the rest of the world is suffering the heat and the temperature much above +40C and even +50C, people of Greenland’s Uummannaq settlement are enjoying “the sight and light and smell of the salty seawater and fresh glacier air” daily.

That’s the way Hivshu Ua described the Uummannaq life among Arctic icebergs in July 2011.

Uummannaq dwellers are very lucky to have such honor… Unfortunately, it might not last forever. In 30 years, scientists predict the ice-free(!) Arctic…

Who is Hivshu Ua?

He is one of great men participated in the Uummannaq Music project. Be sure to visit UM’s website, facebook page and Flickr sets to learn more and see Greenland in its currently-existing glory.

Hope, you will like this and below-published photographs and say thanks with me to Hivshu Ua, their author, for letting us to see such an Arctic summer beauty online.

The second season of the Uummannaq Music project (www.uummannaqmusic.com) curated and done by Galya Morrel and Joel Spiegelman in Uummannaq, Greenland, has been finished.

It’s really hard to describe what they have completed this year. So many activities! Too many! That was the reason why the post was delayed.

Praise god, Galya created the video presentation of the Uummannaq Music project for The International Arctic Social Sciences Association (IASSA) Conference in Akureyri, Iceland

Galya Morell & Joel Spiegelman’s project “Uummaannaq Music”
The most unusual Music Festival at the Ice School for Orphaned Eskimo Children in Uummaannaq, Greenland, 590 kilometers north of the Artic Circle
Blog, RSS, Facebook, YouTube.

Uummannaq Music is included in Cold United’s list of Cold-Related People & Projects.

The IPY 2012 Conference From Knowledge to Action is taking place in Montreal, Canada April 22-27, 2012 and will be one of the largest and most important scientific conferences for polar science and climate change, impacts and adaptation. The Call for Abstracts for oral and poster presentations is now open.

Conference organizers invite you to submit abstracts on the latest polar science, as well as the application of polar research findings, policy implications and how to take polar knowledge to action. The Conference program is available at www.ipy2012montreal.ca

The Call for Abstracts closes September 30, 2011.

NEW Conference Website Launched

Our new conference website is up and running and features the latest information on the development of the Conference program, as well as indepth articles and highlights of polar science news from around the world on our Conference Twitter page (@IPY2012). Please be sure to update your bookmarks to link to our new site.

Iluliaq - Iceberg in the area of Uummannaaq, Greenland. Photo by Galya Morrell.

Apr. 27, 2011 – The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) released the report that identifies 13 of the richest and most vulnerable places in the Arctic Ocean that should be considered for protection as summer sea ice melts and industrial activity expands into newly accessible areas.

The Bering Strait, Chukchi Beaufort Coast, Barents Sea Coast and Great Siberian Polynya are among the hotspots. Here is the full list of the 13 top priority areas featured in the report:

- St. Lawrence Island,
- the Bering Strait,
- Wrangel Island (off the US and the Russian Federation),
- Chukchi Beaufort Coast (US),
- Beaufort Coast/Cape Bathurst (Canada),
- Polar Pack Refugium,
- Lancaster Sound/North Water Polynya,
- Disko Bay/Store Hellefiskebanke (off Canada and Greenland),
- White Sea/Barents Sea Coast,
- Pechora Sea/Kara Gate,
- Novaya Zemlya,
- High Arctic Islands and Shelf,
- Great Siberian Polynya (off Norway and the Russian Federation).

This is the first-ever Arctic-wide identification of areas most important to Arctic marine life and vulnerable to additional stress on top of that related to global warming, loss of sea ice and ocean acidification.

Full story at IrishWeatherOnline.com

Photo credit: Galya Morrell @ Flickr & UummannaqMusic.com