The residents of USA and Canada have been witnessing extremely cold weather. But, last Thursday, something very unusual happened. The aforementioned countries were even colder than Mars. Even though the red planet is at an incredible distance of 50 million km from the Sun, it remained warmer than these countries of planet Earth.
As per the latest figures taken from NASA's Curiosity Rover, the temperature at Mars equator hit a day time high of -8°C or 17.6°F or -8°C, which is almost 10°F warmer than Chicago and 12°F warmer than Detroit. One should spare a moment for those who have been withstanding such temperatures, which is even colder than Mars and that too without the 'wind chill factor!' If we add the wind chill factor, the western prairies have a feel of -50°C and Minnesota of -37°C. If people are not careful, they may develop hypothermia.
Thus, parts of North Dakota, Washington, Wisconsin, Montana, Illinois, Ohio, Vermont, Pennsylvania, most of New York along with the entire Maine and Minnesota were colder than Mars last Thursday.
Elsewhere, there are several parts in the world which have recorded significantly low temperatures. Oymyakon in Siberia is the coldest place on the face of the Earth. The town has 500 inhabitants and the average temperatures are in the -50°Cs. The coldest recorded temperature was -71.2°C in the year 1924. The area is just a few hundred kilometers from the Antarctic Circle. The maximum temperature in Barrow, Alaska remains at -21°C and the minimum temperature is recorded at -23°C. Adding the wind chill factor, it feels like -34°C. The city is just 4 meters above the sea level and is very close to the North Pole.
