On Tuesday, the apocalyptic-sounding "polar vortex" swept through the United States from Montana to New York, bringing wind chill factors as low as 45 degrees F below zero near the U.S.-Canada border. Local governments and power companies across the United States went into overdrive preparing for the cold, especially in southern states that never experience such frigid winter temperatures. Power companies implemented pre-emptive blackouts to prevent power grid strain, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the state's power grid, declared its second-highest emergency level, and schools were canceled as far south as Atlanta.
Still, for places like Finland or Siberia, the freezing temperatures making history this week in the United States are nothing exceptional -- just part of the winter norm. Here are some of the places that really do see the world's most extreme -- and often brutal -- winter cold.
Antarctica
It's probably no surprise that Antarctica tops the list of coldest spots in the world. In 2010, the coldest recorded temperature in history &ndash 135.8 degrees F below zero -- was sensed via satellite on an ice plateau in the eastern part of the continent. The record maintained by the official World Meteorological Organization, which does not honor remotely sensed temperatures, also comes from another part of the continent and remains at a still ghastly 128.6 degrees F from 1983. It is the driest, windiest continent on Earth, with ice that reaches two miles deep at some points. And strangely, warming trends that have shrunk Arctic ice to historic lows seem to be affecting Antarctica differently, with ice even increasing in some places in recent years.
Above, the remains of a whaling station on Deception Island, Antarctica, on Oct. 27, 2008.
MARTIN BUREAU/AFP/Getty Images
Russia
The Russian region of Siberia isn't just the proverbial "coldest place on Earth." The lowest recorded temperature in the northern hemisphere was in fact in the town of Oymyakon, where in in January 1926 temperatures fell as low as -96.2 degrees F. Above, a Nenets herdsman gathers his reindeer as they prepare to leave a site outside the town of Nadym, some 2,000 miles northeast of Moscow in Siberia, to find a new place to stay in March 2005. The Nenets people are mainly nomadic reindeer herdsmen in the region.
TATYANA MAKEYEVA/AFP/Getty Images
Canada
Parts of Canada's northernmost regions have annual winter temperatures close to -30 degrees F, and in 1947, the coldest temperature in North America was recorded in Snag, a village in the country's Yukon Territory. On Jan. 3, the Toronto Star reported that temperatures in Greater Toronto had dropped so drastically that the expansion of frozen water in soil beneath the ground had been creating earthquake-like explosions. Above, a partially frozen Bow River makes its way through the Alberta's Banff National Park in Lake Louise, Canada, on Nov. 28, 2013.
JOE KLAMAR/AFP/Getty Images
Finland
When Google was building a new data center in 2011, it looked no further than Finland, where temperatures average out at about 14 degrees F during January. Much of the power that Google had consumed in past years was in order to cool its servers, but the Finnish climate offered "free cooling." Above, Palle-Jooseppi, a male brown bear of Ranua Zoo, begins to wake up after winter hibernation in Ranua, Finland, on Feb. 23, 2012.
KAISA SIREN/AFP/Getty Images
Mongolia
Winter nights in Mongolia can reach as low as -40 degrees F. A particularly brutal winter in 2010 took a devastating toll on the country's livestock. Above, a woman carries a carcass of a goat that died on March 15, 2010 in Zuunmod, Tuv province, Mongolia. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) estimated that 2.7 million head of livestock had perished by then, expecting the number to double over the course of the winter.
Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
Greenland
Humans have been settling in Greenland as far back as 4,500 B.C., but around the year 1100, a drastic drop in temperatures chased out the Norse inhabitants. Now, Greenland is one of the coldest countries in the world, with average temperatures no higher than 50 degrees F year round. Above, scientist Ian Joughin of the University of Washington walks atop Greenland's Glacial Ice Sheet on July 15, 2013.
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Iceland
Reyjavik, Iceland, perched on the coast, dips into the 20s and teens during the coldest months of the winter, but suffers under mostly cloudy skies for the most the year. Above, a woman stands in the snow in the center of Reykjavik on May 1, 2013.
JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images
United States
The coldest temperature ever recorded in the United States, perhaps predictably, comes from a particularly cold winter in Alaska when the mercury dropped to a harsh -80 degrees F. In the continental United States, the lowest temperature was recorded in Lewis and Clark County, Montana. As the polar vortex swept through on Tuesday, a number of U.S. cities, particularly in southern and Midwestern states, experienced record temperature lows. Above, ice builds up along Lake Michigan at North Avenue Beach as temperatures dipped far below zero on Jan. 6, in Chicago, Illinois.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Kazakhstan
In Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, where it can snow from August to May, the average January temperatures dip to -4 degrees F, though winter temperatures have slipped below -40 degrees F. Above, Russian space agency rescuers' helicopters and vehicles stand near the Soyuz capsule after the spacecraft's landing near the town of Arkalyk in northern Kazakhstan.
MAXIM SHIPENKOV/AFP/Getty Images
Norway
During the month of January, the average temperature in Norway is between 26 and 34 degrees F. But in January 1999, temperatures in the Scandinavian country plummeted, reaching temperatures as low as -68.8 degrees F. Above, Bogstad Lake, just outside of Oslo, is pictured in January 2008.
Sara Johannessen/AFP/Getty Images
