We're going to be visiting Mongolia next summer - pleasure not business :) - and I thought I remember reading somewhere that the capital city, Ulaanbaatar (sometimes written as Ulan Bator), was the coldest capital city in the world. Knowing how cold Ottawa can be, I thought I would look it up, and it turns out the comparison is not even close.
Ulaanbaatar is indeed the coldest capital city in the world, followed by Astana (Kazakhstan), Moscow (Russia), Helsinki (Finland), Reykjavik (Iceland), and Tallin (Estonia). Ottawa (Canada) is only the seventh coldest capital, which is certainly food for thought.
Ulaanbaatar - which sits at 1,350m above sea level, so that's kind if cheating :) - has an average year-round temperate below zero (-1.5°C). Although temperatures during its short summer (when we will be there) are quite pleasant - in the 20s - winter temperatures in January are in the -36°C to -40°C range. Ouch!
I wonder if they mollify themselves by saying "it's a dry cold" like we do here?
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