Where it is colder: at the North Pole or at the South

At first glance it seems that at both poles the temperatures are equally low, but this is not so. Both at the South and at the North Pole, a polar night reigns for several months a year and there is no heat from the sun, but the air temperature in these extreme places is still not the same.

The geographical South Pole is located in the center of the Antarctic continent at an altitude of 2,800 meters above sea level. But the point of the North Pole is located on the expanses of the Arctic Ocean. And when travelers who have reached the North Pole stick a symbolic flag, at that moment they have drifting ice under their feet, about 3 meters thick, and more than 4,000 meters to the bottom of the ocean.

But the differences between the geographic poles do not end there. If you look at the air temperature at these points, it turns out that the North Pole compared to the South is a real resort. In summer, during a polar day at the North Pole, the temperature keeps around 0ºС, but the average summer temperature at the South Pole is -25ºС. The highest air temperature that was recorded in this place is -12.3ºС, but the record of the North Pole is higher - as much as + 5ºС.

A similar situation is with winter temperatures. If at the North Pole during the polar night the temperature drops to -40ºС, then at the South Pole one can’t count on this. The norm for the southernmost point of the planet is -60 ° C, but it happens that the thermometer drops to -80 ° C. What are the reasons for such differences in such seemingly similar places?

The thing is that the geographical North Pole is a point located at sea level in the midst of drifting ice, and the South Pole is a place at a decent height, and also surrounded by a large mass of land - the mainland Antarctica. And the farther from the coast, the more severe the climate becomes. It turns out that the climate at the South Pole is sharply continental, and even exacerbated by considerable height. And if a bold plan for conquering the pole is ripening in your head, it is better to start from the North, because it is much warmer there.