Extreme temperatures

Here at Datamarket HQ we're forever slaving over our keyboards to bring you more data, and today is no exception: we now have average monthly temperatures spanning 310 years for over 5,000 places across the world, recently released by the UK Met Office.

Now of course this should be used responsibly, but we would surely be negligent in our duties if we didn't answer this most pressing question: what are the hottest and the coldest places in the world?

Coldest place on Earth

If you were to find yourself on Ellef Ringnes Island in the northern reaches of Canada in September 2000, you would have had to suffer an average temperature of -78.9 degrees Celsius. Ouch.

This seems to be an anomaly though, so our much-coveted Coldest Place on Earth Award goes to Vostok Research Station in Antarctica.

Hottest place on Earth

And the hottest place? Well, the hottest average monthly temperature was recorded at Ouallen, Algeria: 42.6 degrees Celsius in July 1932.

But for its continued excellence in keeping things hot, our Hottest Place on Earth Award goes to the aptly-named Furnace Creek in California's Death Valley.

The golf players among you might be interested to know that there's a course at Furnace Creek. Which makes us wonder how much it costs to keep green: