Children get a day off school, but only because thermometer hits minus 45C or below

The capital of Yakutia - officially known as the Sakha Republic - today hit minus 45, which meant children from grades 1 to 5 - aged 7 to 12) were ordered to stay home. 

This was the coldest day of the winter so far in Yakutsk, the chilliest city in the world. Older kids? They still had to attend classes. 

Elsewhere in the region it was even frostier. Temperatures in the village of Zhigansk dropped to minus 50C degrees. 

Here the local administration cancelled classes for all students from grades 1 to 11.

In the city of Verkhoyansk, it plunged to minus 51C. Lessons were canceled for the students from grades 1 to 7. 

In the nearby village of Batagai the thermometer dropped to minus 53C but students in grades 10 to 11 were still expected at school.

In Olekminsk district, the temperature dropped to minus 45C. In all towns classes were cancelled from grades 1 to 8. In Lensk the temperature dropped to minus 45C degrees and classes were halted for pupils up to grade 9. 

But there was a strange weather anomaly in a region famed for diamonds and woolly mammoths. In Chersky, not famed for its temperate climate, the thermometer showed PLUS 4C.

The snow was melting. Warm air caused the peculiarity, arriving from the shores of Kamchatka, say experts. 

But that made for a range of temperatures the same day in Yakutia of an exceptional 57C degree. The weather keeps surprising us.