New data recorded by satellites show temperatures hitting a low of -135.8 degrees Fahrenheit below zero on two separate occasions in East Antarctica making it the coldest temperature ever recorded, the Associated Press recorded.
The satellites, which recorded the temperature, first recorded the astounding cold in August of 2010 and again this year in July when it was just below at -135.5 below zero, the AP reported. Although this temperature is the coldest ever recorded, it won't be breaking any Guinness world records because it was recorded with a satellite device, and not an actual thermostat.
NASA satellite data show the previous record was -128.6, but the new record is "50 degrees colder than anything that has ever been seen in Alaska or Siberia or certainly North Dakota," ice scientist Ted Scambos from the National Snow and Ice Data Center told the AP.
"It's more like you'd see on Mars on a nice summer day in the poles," Scambos said on Monday at the American Geophysical Union scientific meeting in San Francisco where he announced the data, according to the AP. "I'm confident that these pockets are the coldest places on Earth."
According to Scambos, humans can only breathe for about three minutes when scientists make quick runs outside in the South Pole, but the new record setting temperatures would make it impossible for anyone to breathe without help, the AP reported.
"Thank God, I don't know how exactly it feels," Scambos said, adding that most researchers use a snorkel that brings air into their coat and warms them up, allowing for easier breathing, "so you don't inhale by accident" the cold air, Scambos said.
On the ground, the coldest temperature recorded in the United States was 27 degree below zero Fahrenheit in Yellowstone, Wyoming, according to Jeff Masters, director of Weather Underground, a private firm, the AP reported.
"If you want soul-crushing cold, you really have to go overseas," Scambos told the AP. "It's just a whole other level of cold because on that cold plateau, conditions are perfect."
According to Scambos, temperatures like the one recorded in Antarctica only happens because of perfect conditions: dry air, chilly ground, and cloudless skies allow for cold heaps of air to come down off a mountain dome and then gets trapped on the ground, "hugging the surface and sliding around."
