The World's Most Extreme Places

Hot, cold, dry, wet and windy – there are some places in the world where everything is taken to the extreme.  Those craving excitement might put them on the radar. Others should make a mental note to avoid these spots at all costs. ​

The World’s Hottest Place 
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Here’s a contentious category, with various contenders vying for the top hot spot.  Historically, the victor was El Aziza in Libya, where the ground temperature was recorded in 1922 at a whopping 58°C.   Furnace Creek in California’s Death Valley clocked in at an impressive 56°C, but it was not until satellites could measure thermal temperatures that the true victor could scorch their way to the top.   Researchers at the University of Montana analysed infrared satellite data and the results were surprising.  According to five years worth of data, the hottest place on Earth is Iran’s Lut Desert, where the land skin temperature was measured at 70.7°C.   At that heat, you can fry an egg on your hand! ​

The World’s Coldest Place 
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On November 23, 2010, Alberta recorded temperatures that made it the second coldest place that day on the planet.  What’s remarkable about this fact is that it included populated cities like Edmonton and Calgary, where the wind chill cranked the chill to around -41°C.   Pollockville, 250km east of Calgary, had to deal with -49°C.   But that’s toasty compared to how cold it can get in Antarctica, which reigns supreme for recording the coldest temperatures on Earth.  Scientists in Vostok, near the magnetic south pole,  recorded land temperatures at a brrrr-isk  -89.2°C, measured during the dark winter months of June and July.   The coldest permanently inhabited town is said to be Oymyakon in Russia’s northern Sakha Republic, which clocked in at a frisky−71.2 °C.

The World’s Wettest Place 
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There are half a dozen contenders in this category, with different research methodologies determined to soak up the glory.  When I visited Kauai, Hawaii’s Garden Island, I was told by proud locals and guides that Mount Wai-‘ale-‘ale is the wettest spot on Earth, with rain falling between 335 and 360 days a year, drowning in up to 13,000mm each year.  The Guinness Book of World Records recognizes this achievement, but the US National Climatic Data Center gives the title to Colombia’s Lloro, which receives over 12,000mm a year.  Cherrapunji in north-eastern India is another contender, even more remarkable since its annual rainfall (almost 11,000mm) falls mostly in the monsoon months between June and August. Back in Colombia, a freak rainy season in 1974 deposited 26,303mm of rain on the town of Tutunendo.   It puts living in rainy Vancouver, where the average annual rainfall is just 1588mm, in perspective. ​

The World’s Windiest Place 
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For 75 years, Mount Washington in New Hampshire held the record for the highest wind speeds ever recorded, 231 miles per hour at the top of its peak.   It was a freak event, much like the cyclone in Barrow Island, Australia that blew right past the record, clocking in at 253 miles per hour. The most consistent windiest place on the planet is Commonwealth Bay in Antarctica.   As for the windiest cities, forget Chicago.   Citizens in Wellington New Zealand, Reykjavik Iceland and Cape Town South Africa would do well to invest in extra strength umbrellas.  As for the windiest city in Canada?   The title goes to St John’s, Newfoundland. ​

The World’s Driest Place 
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The Atacama Desert stretches across northern Chile into parts of Bolivia and Peru, and is known as the driest place on the planet.  Average rainfall is as little as 1mm a year, with some weather stations having never recorded any rain at all.  The town of Arica, a launchpad for tourism excursions into the Atacama, did not record any rain for over 15 years!   Crossing the Atacama in a 4x4 is one of my highlights of visiting South America, witnessing its otherworldly landscapes and rock structures.  Scientists have compared the Atacama to conditions of Mars, which is why NASA test-drove their Mars Rovers here.  Oddly enough, the driest continent is Antarctica, which receives less than 2mm rain a year, even though it is primarily made up of compacted snow and ice.

The World’s Deepest Place 
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James Cameron, director of Avatar and Titanic, broke the world record to become the first human to visit the deepest spot on the earth – the desolate, alien and lunar landscape that sits almost 11km deep at the bottom of the ocean known as the Mariana Trench.   Located in the Western Pacific, the 2550km long trench forms the boundary of two tectonic plates.  While pressure at the bottom is over 1000 times that found at sea level, researchers have still found life in the form of fish, shrimp and other organisms.  Decaying animal skeletons, shells and other organisms give the seabed a yellow colour.  Cameron filmed his descent in 3D for a documentary, and collected samples for scientists to shed more light on the darkest of ocean deeps.

The World’s Highest Place 
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The world’s highest mountain is Mount Everest, towering at 8848m above sea level.  If you dared to climb atop its dangerous peak, as thousands of climbers do every year, you wouldn’t however be the closest to the moon.   The planet’s shape is an oblate spheroid, much like the shape of balloon if you were to sit on it.  The result is that mountains close to the equator stick out further than mountains closer to the poles, not in terms of height above sea level, but in terms of its closeness to the stars and distance from the earth’s centre.   Cleverer people than I have done the calculations, and determined that the 6310m high Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador lies on the bulge, and as such is about 2.4 km closer to space than Everest!

The Deepest Place Below Sea Level 
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On dry land, you can’t get any lower than visiting the Dead Sea, the salty lake that shares its banks with Israel and Jordan.  To get there, you’ll drive along the world’s lowest road, and float in its famously buoyant waters 423 metres below sea level.  67 kilometres long and 18 kilometres wide, this lifeless sea is 8.6 times saltier than the ocean, which is why you can comfortably sit back and read a newspaper during a dip.  The health benefits of the mineral waters and thick mud of the Dead Sea have been prized since Biblical days, making it one of the world’s first health resorts.  A drop in groundwater and flow of water from the Jordan River has resulted in significant shrinking of the Dead Sea, causing much concern for both the tourism and cosmetic industries that support it. ​

The World’s Most Dangerous Country 
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Forbes Magazine went through data looking at crime rates, risk of terrorism and kidnappings, police protection, corruption and political stability to determine the world’s most dangerous countries.  Receiving the bronze medal on the podium is Somalia, which has not had a real government for 15 years, where militants run wild and piracy is rampant.   The silver medal goes to Iraq, a hotbed of fundamentalism and instability, its citizens living under the constant threat of bombings and deeply corrupt government officials.   Winning the gold medal, which will probably make its way to a Swiss bank account faster than I can type this sentence, is Afghanistan.   Tribal warfare and corruption is rife, especially on the Pakistan border, where it is estimated that every citizen owns an automatic weapon. ​

The Youngest Place on Earth 
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Iceland, the real land of Fire and Ice (Game of Thrones notwithstanding) boasts the youngest place on the planet with its southern-most point,  Surtsey Island.  This 1.4 km2 island dramatically emerged from the sea during a volcanic eruption in 1963.   The volcano stopped erupting almost four years later, with the intense flow of lava resulting in a newest island in the Atlantic.  Since then, erosion has whittled away some of the land, but its hard igneous core has remained firm.   The island was declared a nature reserve in 1965, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008, for its scientific value.  Scientists are studying how plant, bird and marine life are evolving on the island, with human impact carefully monitored and kept to a minimum.