The polar regions are the coldest places on Earth, but the two poles differ dramatically. The Arctic averages around -30°C (-22°F) in winter and hovers near 0°C (32°F) in summer, while Antarctica’s interior plunges to -60°C (-76°F) as an annual average and has recorded temperatures below -89°C (-128°F). Understanding why these regions differ, and what temperatures actually feel like there, requires looking at geography, ocean currents, and elevation.
Arctic Temperatures by Season
The Arctic is an ocean surrounded by land, and that ocean plays a major role in keeping temperatures relatively moderate compared to its southern counterpart. Even when covered by ice, the Arctic Ocean water underneath stays around -1°C (about 30°F), and some of that warmth escapes through the ice and through patches of open water in the pack ice. This ocean heat acts as a buffer, preventing the extreme lows that define Antarctica.
Winter temperatures across the Arctic vary widely by location. Coastal areas in northern Canada, Greenland, and Siberia typically see winter averages between -20°C and -40°C (-4°F to -40°F). Summer brings 24-hour sunlight and temperatures that can climb above freezing, with coastal areas reaching 5°C to 10°C (41°F to 50°F) in July. The Arctic’s most extreme heat event on record occurred in June 2020, when the Russian town of Verkhoyansk hit 38°C (100.4°F). The World Meteorological Organization verified this as the highest temperature ever recorded above the Arctic Circle, a reading so unprecedented that the organization created an entirely new climate record category for it.
Antarctica: The Coldest Continent
Antarctica is colder than the Arctic by a wide margin. The continent’s average annual temperature ranges from about -10°C (14°F) along the coast to -60°C (-76°F) on the high interior plateau. That interior plateau sits at an average elevation of 2.3 kilometers (about 7,500 feet), and air temperature drops roughly 6.5°C for every kilometer of altitude gained. Elevation alone accounts for a significant chunk of the temperature gap between the two poles.
Coastal Antarctica can be surprisingly variable. Summer temperatures occasionally exceed 10°C (50°F) near the coast, while winter readings at those same stations drop below -40°C (-40°F). The interior is another world entirely. Summer temperatures on the East Antarctic Plateau only “warm” to about -30°C (-22°F), and winter temperatures fall below -80°C (-112°F). NASA satellites detected the coldest surface temperature ever measured on Earth in small hollows on this plateau: -93.2°C (-136°F) in August 2010. The previous record, set at Russia’s Vostok Research Station in 1983, was -89.2°C (-128.6°F).
Why Antarctica Is So Much Colder
Two factors explain most of the difference. First, Antarctica is a massive landmass covered by an ice sheet, so it receives almost no warming from the ocean beneath it. The Arctic, by contrast, is a relatively thin layer of ice floating on water that constantly leaks heat upward. Second, Antarctica’s elevation matters enormously. The Arctic Ocean sits at sea level. Antarctica’s interior averages 2.3 kilometers above sea level, which means the air there is roughly 15°C colder than it would be at the same latitude but at sea level.
The Albedo Effect and Polar Cold
Snow and ice reflect a huge proportion of incoming sunlight back into space, which keeps polar regions cold in a self-reinforcing cycle. Sea ice reflects 50 to 70 percent of the solar energy that hits it, while open ocean water reflects only about 6 percent, absorbing the rest as heat. This means that as long as ice covers the surface, most of the sun’s energy bounces away instead of warming the ground or water beneath. When ice melts and exposes darker ocean, the water absorbs far more heat, which melts more ice, which exposes more water. This feedback loop is a key driver of warming in the Arctic.
Wind Chill Makes It Feel Even Colder
Raw temperature only tells part of the story. Both polar regions experience persistent, powerful winds that make conditions feel far colder than thermometer readings suggest. Antarctica’s katabatic winds, which form as cold air slides downhill off the interior plateau, can sustain speeds above 160 km/h (100 mph) near the coast. In the Arctic, blizzard conditions are common across open tundra and sea ice.
To put wind chill in practical terms: if the air temperature is -18°C (0°F) and the wind blows at 24 km/h (15 mph), the effective temperature on exposed skin drops to about -28°C (-19°F). At that level, frostbite can occur in 30 minutes. In Antarctica’s interior, where temperatures already sit below -40°C and winds are common, wind chill values can reach levels that make exposed skin dangerous within minutes.
How Fast the Arctic Is Warming
The Arctic is warming faster than any other region on Earth, a phenomenon known as Arctic amplification. NOAA data shows Arctic temperatures have increased by more than 0.18°C per decade since 1900, and the trend has accelerated sharply in recent decades. Autumn 2024 was the warmest Arctic autumn since 1900, coming in 2.28°C above the 1991-2020 average. Winter and summer 2025 were the second and third warmest on record, respectively.
Sea surface temperatures tell a similar story. In Arctic Ocean areas that are ice-free in August, water temperatures have risen about 0.3°C per decade since 1982. That warming erodes sea ice from below, which in turn exposes more dark ocean water and accelerates the albedo feedback loop described above. Interestingly, the amplification effect is strongest in autumn and winter, when the heat absorbed by open water during summer is released back into the atmosphere. During summer itself, melting ice absorbs energy without raising air temperatures much, so the warming signal is less dramatic in those months.
Antarctica’s warming pattern is more complex and less uniform. The Antarctic Peninsula has warmed significantly, but parts of the interior have shown little change or even slight cooling over certain periods. The continent’s isolation, surrounded by the powerful Southern Ocean current that circles it and limits heat exchange with warmer waters to the north, helps insulate it from the global warming trends hitting the Arctic so hard.