A Siberian outpost reached a near-record cold temperature when the thermometer hit -79. It may have been colder but we’ll never know — the thermometer broke. The village of Oymyakon is home to 500 hardy people. Lower temperatures are recorded in Antarctica, but here there are no permanently inhabited settlements
… Daily problems that come with living in Oymyakon include pen ink freezing, glasses freezing to people’s faces and batteries losing power. Locals leave their cars running all day for fear of not being able to restart them. Rock solid earth makes burying the dead a difficult task. The earth must first have thawed sufficiently in order to dig, so a bonfire is lit for a few hours. Hot coals are then pushed to the side and a hole just a few inches deep is dug. The process is repeated for several days until the hole is deep enough to bury the coffin.