Winter Is Coming to Siberia as First Snow Falls Under Northern Lights

Yakutia, Russia — September 11, 2025

The chill came early this year. In Russia’s far northeastern wilderness — a land where winter reigns for most of the year — the first snow has already dusted the earth, and green ribbons of the aurora borealis have swirled across the night sky. For the people of Yakutia, it’s a familiar whisper from the Arctic: winter is coming.

On the night of September 5, in the tiny village of Oymyakon — the coldest permanently inhabited settlement on Earth — the heavens lit up in shades of emerald and violet. Local photographer Semyon Sivtsev braved the freezing air to capture the spectacle, his images revealing the haunting beauty of a place where temperatures once plunged to –96.2°F (–71.2°C), a record matched only by Antarctica.

Here, life revolves around the cold. Each spring, Oymyakon celebrates its icy identity with the “Pole of Cold” festival, drawing the world’s most intrepid travelers to test themselves against the elements. Visitors bundle in layers for snowmobile rides, dogsled tours, and frosty walks where the air crystallizes on their eyelashes — a viral local phenomenon charmingly known as “snow eyelashes.”

Photo by Anastasia Gruzdeovy from social network

And now, just six days after the northern lights danced above Oymyakon, winter has made another quiet entrance. This morning, September 11, the mining town of Udachny, farther north, awoke to its first snow. Streets, rooftops, and tundra were layered in white — a fleeting coat that will melt within days but serves as a clear reminder: the long season of ice is near.

For outsiders, this might seem premature. But here in the heart of Siberia, where the sun’s warmth is fleeting and summer is a brief visitor, the early snow is less a surprise than a promise. Soon, the Lena River will freeze, the nights will lengthen, and the mercury will plunge — sometimes by more than 100 degrees from summer highs.

In Yakutia, people don’t just endure winter. They live it, celebrate it, and, in many ways, become part of it. As the first flakes settle and the northern lights shimmer overhead, one truth rings clear in the land of eternal frost: winter is coming — and it’s already here.

Фотофакт: Зима пришла рано

Стоп, кадр! А над Оймяконом уже северное сияние!