'Snowlashes' Instagram trend takes off in freezing Russian winter (Video)

The National -- The Yakutia region in Siberia makes up one-fifth of Russia's territory and is also one of the coldest places on earth.

This month temperatures have dropped to minus 67 degrees Celsius in some parts of the region (which is home to nearly one million people).

Students routinely go to school in the village of Oymyakon when temperatures are at around minus 40 degrees, but according to state news agency Ria Novosti schools were closed when the temperatures started to hit minus 55 degrees Celsius last week.

Temperatures in the village of Oymyakon there have dropped to as low as -62°C, according to one thermometer, cold enough to freeze people’s eyelashes.

The official weather station at the ‘pole of cold’ registered minus 59°C, but locals said their readings were as low as minus 67°C – less than 1°C off the lowest accepted temperature for a permanent settlement anywhere in the world, recorded in the same village in 1933.

The digital thermometer was installed last year to help Oymyakon market itself to tourists, but it gave up the ghost at minus 62C.

One villager in Oymyakon even recorded a temperature of minus 67C, while others agreed that official readings did not tell the full story.

But elsewhere life went on as normal in the Siberian freezer.

The village’s hardy inhabitants survive the winters, which drop to an average of -50C in January and February, largely by burning wood and coal for warmth.

The village sits 750 meters above sea level and the length of its days vary from three hours in December to 21 hours in summer.

Oymyakon is served by just the one shop and its solitary school only shuts if temperatures dip below -52C.

In the nearby city of Yakutsk, 24-year-old wedding shop worker, Anastasia Gruzdeva, captured a striking picture of her and two friends with their eyelashes frozen by the subzero conditions. This photo, posted last week by @AnastasiaGav, has been shared countless times and liked 81,535 times:

Here are some other photos from the Yakutia region tagged with #snowlash this month. They certainly put the UAE's current 'cold spell' into perspective:

A remarkable video shows an outdoor fish market fully functioning at a temperature of minus 50C in regional capital Yakutsk, the world’s coldest city.