Earth's poles are the coldest places on the planet, with the South Pole outpacing the North Pole in terms of bone-chilling weather. The lowest temperature ever recorded was in Antarctica, about 700 miles (1,127 kilometers) from the South Pole. The reason why it's colder in the Antarctic than the Arctic is because it's dry and mountainous. Two of the coldest places in the Northern Hemisphere are populated, and they aren't very close to the North Pole.
