Harghita colder than Siberia

In Harghita, colder than Siberia. It’s not an exaggeration or a metaphor. On Thursday morning, at 5 a.m, the thermometer showed 18.8 Celsius degrees below zero in Miercurea Ciuc.

In Siberian weather stations, the thermometers showed minimum temperatures 4 degrees higher than in the Ciuc Depression.For example, at Omsk the minimum day temperature was 15 Celsius degrees below zero, at Krasnoiarsk and Irkutsk, 13 Celsius degrees below zero.

It’s true that we might not compare the Harghitanian frosts with the ones in the coldest city on the earth, Oymyakon, where the lowest temperature record was 71.2 Celsius degrees below zero.

What is sure, Miercurea Ciuc will have the lowest temperatures in the country. from September until March.

The question is how the people from Harghita withstand such temperatures lower than those in the freezers. It’s even more amazing that, in the last 15 years, one person died of hypothermia.

Like the majority of the people in Romania, most of them live in old blocks of flats. in urban area, and in houses, in rural area. Neither the flats, nor the houses have been built with a special technique, to protect them against cold.
In towns, places are heated by central heating provided by gas or mixed, using wood pellets from wood waste. In the countryside, people have been using since always, especially, wood stoves.

Nobody complains about the cold and says that it’s colder than when temperature drops 30 degrees below zero. Maybe because frosted trees make some sounds that resemble the cries of children.

Everyone who lives in ‘the small Romanian Siberia’ does not have seven rows of coats. Moreover, most people wear their coats unbuttoned, even at 20 degrees below zero, no gloves, and only scarves to alleviate the feeling that your breath freezes and warm shoes.

In addition, they don’t lock themselves in houses, but carry out their common tasks in their work place or school. Even at such temperatures, the central square and parks are filled with parents that take their babies out to breathe clean air and children to play.

They say that they got used with it. The perception of cold sensation is less pronounced because in the depressions in south-eastern Transylvania blizzards occur only in the highlands, and the wind is a rare phenomenon. In Miercurea Ciuc, dry frosty weather is more common.

Locals complain only about how difficult it is to start their cars, but many have learned to warm their car batteries, if they want them to start on ‘the first ignition key turn’. It is true that, in this area, people get the highest bills because of heating costs, which add up to maintenance costs.

A three-bedroom apartment bill exceeds 700 lei in January, February and March, and heating usually begins to be supplied in the second or the third decade of September and ends in the second decade of May.

And another paradox, even if it is colder than Siberia, the number of people suffering from colds and respiratory diseases is not higher than in the seaside towns.


Translated by: Denisse-Meda Bucura,
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University