Cities With The Most Extreme Weather Conditions In The World
There are five climate types on Earth: dry, tropical, temperate, continental and polar. And talking about the extreme weather, you might think of the Arctics, the Amazonian forest and the Sahara Desert, but what about the places where humans live? We wanted to see extreme temperatures or weather conditions in the cities where thousands of people live and face the challenging elements. There are cities where everything freezes, cities where plastic bins melt because of hot temperatures, cities where it never rains or cities where rain seems never to stop! Let’s check out some amazing photos of the crazy climate conditions in 20 cities around the world.
20. Unpredictable Weather in Russia
When you say Russia, you imagine cold, ice and snow. Well, in St. Petersburg, during the summer, the weather is so unpredictable that you always have to carry with you a jacket and an umbrella. It can be sunny now, and in one hour it’s raining cats and dogs! You won’t believe what people in this town at #15 must endure…
19. Forget About Sunbathing…
There’s a town in Denmark on Faroe Island called Torshavn, or “sunbather’s nightmare.” That’s because you only get about 70 days of sun per year, the temperatures in the summer only get up to 11º C, and when the sun is gone, you will have to wait and see it after 295 sunless days! At least it’s not as dark as in this city at #5!
18. The Hot Capital
The capital of Kuwait country, Kuwait City, has a population of 2.4 million people that somehow endure the hot temperatures and sandstorms. The average temperature over a year is 34.3º C, but in the summer it has an average of 45-47º C. During the summer months, the government bans outdoor work from 11 am to 4 pm. They do have a huge aqua park, a beach and a large shopping mall to keep cool…
17. Say Goodbye to Fancy Hairstyles in Wellington
New Zealand’s city Wellington is one of the windiest cities in the world, so forget about fashioning your hair in a beautiful style, cause the average winds are three times higher than America’s Chicago which has only 11km/h winds. Wellington has an average of 29km/h wind, but it’s in the top 5 cities in the world worth visiting.
16. No Rainfall in Sudan
Wadi Halfa in Sudan is the hottest city in the country. It has a desert climate, and the population of 15,000 don’t even think of rain over the year. The average summer temperature is 41º C, and during autumn and winter, it gets a little cooler – 36º C. Now let’s check out the coldest city in Russia…
15. Freezing in Yakutsk
The capital of the Sakha Republic of Russia is Yakutsk, where almost 270,000 people live and withstand minus 40º C winters. And what’s worst is that winter season there starts at the beginning of October with negative temperatures and warmer weather starts in May! Close to Yakutsk, someone installed an electronic thermometer and couldn’t function because it was too cold!
14. Foggy San Francisco
While it’s not the foggiest place on Earth, San Francisco is one of the cities making the list. It’s like living in a cloud! During the winter, San Francisco gets foggier because of the increased humidity, making the city look especially eerie.
Talking about humid places, let’s check out Bangkok!
13. Bangkok, The Humid Asian City
How can you tell a city is extremely humid? Have you ever felt like you just stepped into a sauna and you can’t breathe? Welcome to Bangkok! It has extreme summer temperatures, raising over 40º C during the day, and the night doesn’t let you cool off at all…
12. The Rain Will Not Stop in Buenaventura
The largest port city in Colombia is a dangerous city that is known for having a high criminal activity and a lot of rain! Each year it has 6,275.6 mm of rain, which means the air is moist, everything rots, and on top of that, there are street gang wars, kidnapping, drug trafficking and so on.
11. The Hot American City
Among the hottest cities in the US is Phoenix in Arizona, which made it to the top of the list once it had average highs of 40º C and 41º C, according to NOAA. This hot temperature made many people appear in the news as they showed you could fry an egg on the asphalt, bake cookies in the car and drive with gloves because the steering wheel was too hot!
10. Mexican Hotness
The Mexican city has hot summer days that would go up to 40° almost every day! Temperature can go higher than that, making more than a million people in Mexicali stay indoors because it is way too hot!
Let’s check out the highest city in the world and its weather…
9. El Alto, Bolivia
The highest city in the world is 4,150 meters above sea level, and this elevation affects the weather. It has a tundra climate, and it will only get 15º C in the summer. What’s most interesting is that you can have 17º C in November and minus 4º C in July! That’s wacky!
8. A Piece of Ice Age in Alaska
The coolest city in the US is Fairbanks in Alaska, and it resembles Yakutsk, as it also has a very long winter: it starts at the beginning of October and ends in April, having a high temperature of 2º C!
Fairbanks is also, according to the ‘State of the Air 2018’ the most polluted American city because homes use wood-burning stoves to get heating.
7. Canada’s Coldest City: Yellowknife
The coldest city in Canada is Yellowknife, which is only 320 miles away from the Arctic Circle. It was founded in 1934, and it has a population of 20,000. The coldest temperature recorded here was minus 51º C in February 1947. However, it’s a great spot where you can see aurora borealis.
6. Crazy Wet Village
Although Mawsynram is a village and not a city, we had to include this one because it is so wet that it has been added in the Guinness World Records as the spot that gets the highest annual rainfall. The heavy rain usually comes during the monsoon – between June and September, and tourists visit the village to see this phenomenon!
5. Forty Days With No Sun in Murmansk
Russia has a lot of weird things when it comes to mother nature. Not only it has some of the coldest places, but it also has the city of Murmansk, which is both cold and has 40 sunless days during a year. The best part about it is that you can watch the northern lights!
4. The Driest City in The World – Aswan
You can find many things in Aswan, but rain will not be one of them! It is known to be the driest city in the world, but thanks to it being located on the Nile, the residents have access to water. South to the city, there is also the largest rock-filled dam in the world. The name Aswan means in old Nubian “ too much water” – hinting at the flood cycle of the Nile.
3. Cold Major City in North America – Winnipeg
Okay, not many cities with extreme temperatures can say they have a lot of residents, but Winnipeg has more than 700,000 residents that endure winters with an average of minus 20º C and much lower! The lowest was minus 47.8º C in 1879!
2. Humid City in Saudi Arabia
You can feel like you’re in a sauna not just in Bangkok, but also in the city of Dhahran, in Saudi Arabia. It holds the record for the highest humidity too, and in 2013, the humidity made 42 degrees Celsius feel almost double!
1. Icy City in China
The Hardin city is called the Ice City for two reasons: it has harsh weather and a large ice festival. The Hardin International Snow and Ice Festival makes the life of more than 10 million people beautiful during the endless cold. The average there is almost minus 24º C!