Extreme World: Hot and Cold

Extreme World is a new season of coverage on TV, Radio and Online, examining global differences.

Over the next few months 大象传媒 News correspondents will be exploring key themes, such as how children are educated and how crime is tackled in different parts of the world.

For the first theme - hot and cold - correspondent Adam Mynott is in visiting the Russian village of , officially the coldest inhabited place on Earth.

Here the average January temperature is -46C and frostbite is a constant hazard, but the region is rich in gold and diamonds - and Russia is now one of the world's leading diamond producers.

The coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth was -89.2C at in Antarctica on 21 July 1983.

In the UK, the coldest recorded temperature was at Scotland, which reached -27.2C in February 1895. The warmest temperature was recorded at Faversham in Kent in August 2003 when the temperature soared to 38.5C.

The hottest inhabited place on Earth is widely claimed to be a small settlement called Dallol in Ethiopia - where temperatures average 34.4C throughout the year.

However, most recent reports suggest there are no longer any permanent residents in Dallol. The area is extremely remote and can only be reached by camel trains, which still to travel to the area to collect salt.

El Azizia in Libya is officially the hottest place on Earth, recording a top temperature of 57.7C in September 1922.