Discussion

From Dr. Stephen Warren; University of Washington (8/22/2007): The world record for low temperature was set at Vostok Station; Antarctica; on 21 July 1983. Cerveny et al. (2007) give this temperature as -89.4°C in their Table 2; quoting Krause and Flood (1997); who gave the same value. However; the actual reported temperature was -89.2°C; as shown in the logbook of monthly summaries (Figure 1); which I photographed at the Vostok weather office in January 1991. The error in Krause and Flood (1997) was probably the result of a conversion from Celsius to Fahrenheit and rounding to -129°F; then back-conversion to Celsius.This record was confirmed by the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute at Leningrad (St. Petersburg); Russia. Extreme cold resulted from absence of solar radiation; clear skies; little vertical mixing; calm air for a long duration and the station's high elevation.