What's life like at -46oC?

That's the current temperature in Oymyakon in Russia, which is the coldest inhabited place on earth...


Year 13 have been reading today about geographer Nick Middleton's journey to Oymyakon, which was part of a project to visit the hottest, coldest, wettest and driest places on earth. He's written about his adventures in an excellent book called Going to Extremes.

Whilst I was looking for information about the weather at the moment in Oymyakon, I found this interview with Nick, from the National Geographic...


The Oymyakon Project's website is also an interesting read, with some great pictures... Including this one - of Oymyakon's airport!

How would you fancy living in a climate like this? What problems would you have to overcome? What advantages of living in a (very) cold climate can you think of? Leave a comment...

Britain's Worst Weather

Just finished watching Britain's Worst Weather on Channel 4 (what better way to spend a Saturday night?!).

The programme, which looked at flooding in Boscastle, Lynmouth and Carlisle amongst other places, as well as considering whether the ongoing developments along the Thames (including the Olympic site in Stratford) are wise, was excellent - not least because it was presented by a GEOGRAPHER (Dr Nick Middleton from the University of Oxford)!

It was the first of a series of 4 programmes - the other 3 are Lightning, Storms and Snow - well worth watching, if tonight's was anything to go by!

More information about the programmes, Nick Middleton and weather in Britain on the Channel 4 website.