Smoke Clouds Coldest City on Earth
In the Yakutia region, smoke has choked at least 50 towns and villages, including the capital of Yakutsk. The city, which is known for having the coldest average temperatures of any city on Earth in the coldest region outside the Antarctic, had to temporarily shut down its airport this weekend due to low visibility from wildfire smoke.
“The fires have touched absolutely every single person’s life in Yakutia,” city resident Grigory Mochkin, who has been volunteering to set up fire breaks to protect the city, told the Guardian. “The fires are very large this year. And since the smoke has gotten to Yakutsk, people are very vocal on social networks because every person’s life has been affected. In past years, the smog has covered the city for at most a day.”
