what's colder - the north or the south pole?

Answer 1

The South Pole. It is surrounded by land which helps to retain the cold, whereas the North Pole is surrounded by water, which has a moderating effect.

Answer 2

Q Is the North Pole colder or warmer than the South Pole? Why?
A Despite our bias in the Northern hemisphere of thinking of South as warmer and North as colder, the South Pole is much colder than the North Pole. This is primarily because the South Pole is surrounded by land, land that is currently covered with a few kilometers of ice, and the North Pole is surrounded by water which provides a moderating effect.
By the way when British settlers arrived in New Zealand, many built their new homes with strong walls facing North, and windows facing South. This was because they were from the Northern Hemisphere where South is towards the equator and generally warmer and the direction from which the sun shines. New Zealand is in the Southern hemisphere, and so North is the direction to the equator, more sunshine and warmer weather. The settlers learned quickly that the ends of the Earth are generally colder than the center!

Answer 3

the South Pole doesn't just seem to be colder than the North Pole. It is colder. Seriously colder.

Weather records for the North Pole are a little hazy. The nearest point with reliable weather records is about 440 miles south of the pole in Greenland. The warmest time of the year there is in July when the average temperature is 35.

The warmest months of the year at the South Pole are December and January when the average temperature is minus 16.

Of course, both poles are cold because the sun never rises especially high in the sky, and they both spend six months of the year without any sun at all.

So why is the North Pole relatively balmy compared to the South Pole, where it is as cold as my masters' souls? It has to do with what the poles are sitting on.

The North Pole is riding on a layer of ice that, in many places, is only a few feet thick at most, floating along on top of the Arctic Ocean. Like any good ocean worth it's salt, the Arctic is kind of a heat bank. It takes heat from the atmosphere in the summer and warms the air around it in the winter. Granted, it doesn't warm it much, but enough to take some of the chill off.

In contrast, the South Pole is sitting on nothing but ice and stone. First there is the ice sheet, thousands of feet thick in places and then there is the continent itself. All that puts the pole about 9,000 feet above sea level, which means it isn't getting the benefit of any warming from the sea.

Answer 4

Despite our bias in the Northern hemisphere of thinking of South as warmer and North as colder, the South Pole is much colder than the North Pole. This is primarily because the South Pole is surrounded by land, land that is currently covered with a few kilometers of ice, and the North Pole is surrounded by water which provides a moderating effect

Weather records for the North Pole are a little hazy. The nearest point with reliable weather records is about 440 miles south of the pole in Greenland. The warmest time of the year there is in July when the average temperature is 35.

The warmest months of the year at the South Pole are December and January when the average temperature is minus 16.

Answer 5

Definitely the South Pole! Antarctica is the coldest, driest, and windiest place on Earth, and the South Pole is right in the middle of it all. On NASA's Live From the Poles Q & A site, I learned that the average low temperature at the South Pole is about -80 degrees Fahrenheit. That's pretty cold! The North Pole isn't on a continent -- it's on thick ice floes in the Arctic Ocean. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the average winter temperature at the North Pole is around -22 degrees Fahrenheit. That's about the same as the South Pole's summer weather!

Answer 6

The south pole, because the elevation of the land down there is on average 8 to 10 thousand feet above sea level. The elevation of the north pole is sea level. The coldest temperature ever recorded on earth came from the South Pole at -127 degrees.

Answer 7

South Pole. It's a huge land mass with virtually no humidity. A body could lie there perfectly preserved forever. The North pole does have warmer currents flirting round the edges.

Answer 8

South for sure. The sea under the north pole moderates the temperature quite a bit.

Answer 9

The South pole.

July is the North Pole's warmest month, when the mean temperature rises to a freezing 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius). In frigid February the average plummets to -31 degrees Fahrenheit (-35 degrees Celsius).

South pole mean temps: Mean Temps:
Winter: -40 to -94°F (-40 to -70°C)
Summer: -5 to -31°F (-15 to -35°C)

Answer 10

South pole