Verkhoyansk (Russian: Верхоянск, IPA: [vʲɪrxɐˈjansk]; Yakut: Верхоянскай, romanized: Verxoyanskay) is a town in Verkhoyansky District of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located on the Yana River in the Arctic Circle, 92 kilometers (57 mi) from Batagay, the administrative center of the district, and 675 kilometers (419 mi) north of Yakutsk, the capital of the Sakha republic.

The town is located close to the northwestern edge of the Yana-Oymyakon Highlands, a cold and sparsely populated area.

[11] Orthodox Christianity is the most widely professed faith in Verkhoyansk, with a significant non-religious population.

This has the effect of cutting off the region from warming influences in winter and together with a lack of cloud cover leads to extensive heat losses during the cooler months.

Verkhoyansk is one of the places considered the northern Pole of Cold, the other being Oymyakon, located 629 km (391 miles) away by air.

[16] The World Meteorological Organization has recently recognized a temperature of −69.6 °C (−93.3 °F) measured in Greenland on 22 December 1991 as the lowest in the Northern Hemisphere.

The dryness experienced in winter is largely due to the dominance of high pressure at this time of year.

Finally, Verkhoyansk has very low seasonal lag, with December being colder than February, and June warmer than August.

Interestingly, a similar scenario can be encountered in Patagonia in the Southern Hemisphere, where June is the coldest month in many areas.