arctic

While chilly temperatures are nothing new to the Arctic region, a cold snap has been gripping Europe's northern edges, where even the thermometers are freezing.

The arctic stretches of Finland, Norway and Sweden are having the coldest weather of the century, with temperatures reaching 60 degrees below zero.

It's so cold that warm water tossed into the air freezes before it hits the ground. Old-fashioned mercury thermometers -- which freeze at 38 degrees below zero, have been replaced by alcohol-based thermometers.

Electrical outages have darkened many towns, as the temperatures stretch and snap metal power lines. Residents have been using fireplaces and other forms of heating.

In northern Sweden, passenger trains aren't running because their air brakes don't work when the air gets this cold.

Meanwhile, Russia's arctic regions also have been hit by the unusually long chill, closing schools and paralyzing transportation.

"It's one thing to cope for a day when it's minus 50 outside, but it's a different thing altogether to spend several days in a row like that," a meteorologist said.

In some parts of the Kola Peninsula near Russia's border with Norway, such as the Khanty-Mansiisk area, the thermometer fell at night to almost 69-degrees-below zero in one village this week -- the lowest for more than 100 years.

In the Komi region it reached minus 63 in some places, the lowest since 1936.

The temperature there was about 41 degrees below the average for the last 10 days of January.

The meteorologist said a weather system was gradually bringing warmer weather and that temperatures would rise slightly later Thursday and Friday as the cold front retreated toward western Europe.

Itar-Tass news agency said temperatures below minus 40 in the Arctic port of Arkhangelsk had paralyzed drawbridges over the North Dvina River and were preventing some ships getting in and out.