Earth’s lowest directly recorded natural temperature was measured at Vostok Station in Antarctica. On 21 July 1983, a ground-based thermometer recorded −89.2 °C there, a record that remains the lowest officially recognized air temperature measured directly at Earth’s surface.
Vostok Station is a Russian research station established by the Soviet Union in 1957 on the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. Its high elevation, extreme distance from the ocean, exceptionally dry air and long polar night create conditions capable of producing extraordinary cold. The station sits above Lake Vostok, a vast subglacial lake buried beneath the ice.
Satellite instruments have detected even colder ice-surface temperatures in parts of Antarctica, including readings below −90 °C. Those remote-sensing measurements are not the same as a directly measured air temperature, which is why they do not replace the Vostok record. Concordia and Amundsen–Scott stations are also important polar facilities, but neither holds this direct temperature record.