Yakutsk Webcam – Watch a New District Rise on Permafrost

The Yakutsk Webcam looks over Zvyozdny, a new residential district on the southwest edge of Yakutsk, the capital of Russia’s Sakha Republic. The main camera faces a three-story kindergarten in a fenced, snowy yard, with an apartment block on the left, a lit road along the right of the frame and the rest of the city on the horizon. The building is raised above the ground, and the dark gap beneath it is the clearest sign on screen that this city sits on permafrost. A second camera, on the tab, looks down from a high roof across a construction yard toward a spread of wooden houses and gardens, with a new apartment block and its tower crane on the right. Because the district is still being built, the scene changes from month to month: in January the kindergarten was bare grey walls, and by October it was clad in white.

About Yakutsk and the Zvyozdny District

Yakutsk stands on the Lena River at an elevation of 95 meters (312 feet), and the 2021 census counted 355,443 residents. Cossacks under Pyotr Beketov founded it in 1632, and it gained city status in 1708. It is the largest city built on continuous permafrost, and many of its houses rest on concrete piles. No bridge crosses the Lena anywhere in the Sakha Republic, so the Lena Highway relies on a ferry in summer and an ice road in winter. The Kolyma Highway starts across the water at Nizhny Bestyakh, which the Amur-Yakutsk railway reached in November 2011. A road bridge was approved in 2019, and construction began in 2024 with completion estimated for 2028.

Zvyozdny lies in the Avtodorozhny district, about 7.5 kilometers (4.7 miles) southwest of Lenin Square. The two cameras on this page belong to a system labelled Sector C, the part of Zvyozdny where Aleksandr Zakharchenko Street runs between the new blocks. The project covers 68.5 hectares (169 acres) under the city’s master plan, and the development plan calls for 30 apartment buildings of four to nine floors, two terraced housing blocks and about 264,800 square meters (2.85 million square feet) of homes, enough for some 11,000 people.

The kindergarten on the main camera is most likely the one a local news report placed in Sector C in March 2026. That report described a 315-place, three-story building of more than 5,400 square meters (58,000 square feet), then about 40 percent complete and due by the end of 2026. A school for 990 pupils is going up in the same district, the third of that size in the south of Yakutsk after schools No. 39 and No. 40.

Weather and Climate in Yakutsk

Yakutsk is the coldest city of more than 200,000 people in the world, though a few smaller towns in the region get colder. January has a mean daily temperature of -36.9 C (-34.4 F), with average lows of -39.8 C (-39.6 F), and November and March are not far behind at -25.9 C (-14.6 F) and -19.1 C (-2.4 F). The record low is -64.4 C (-83.9 F), set on February 5, 1891. In deep winter the camera shows hard white snow under short days, with the yard and the road lit by street lamps for much of the time.

Spring comes late: April still averages -3.7 C (25.3 F). Summer swings the other way, with July averaging 19.9 C (67.8 F) and highs around 25.8 C (78.4 F). The record high of 38.4 C (101.1 F) was set on July 17, 2011. October averages -6.9 C (19.6 F), and snow already covered both views when these frames were checked in early October 2026. The air is dry, with only 235 millimeters (9.3 inches) of precipitation a year.

Things to Do Near Yakutsk

Central Yakutsk is about 7.5 kilometers (4.7 miles) northeast of the camera, around Lenin Square in the Old Town quarter. The Permafrost Kingdom, a tourist complex dedicated to the region’s frozen ground, is the attraction most closely tied to what the camera shows. The Melnikov Permafrost Institute, founded in 1960, makes the city a center for research on the same subject, and the National Art Museum is another indoor stop for days when the cold keeps you off the streets.

In summer, the ferry across the Lena to Nizhny Bestyakh carries road traffic heading east onto the Kolyma Highway, and in winter the crossing becomes an ice road. Lena Pillars Nature Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site named for the rock pillars along the river. Ysyakh, the summer festival, is held on the last weekend in June. For something unusual, Yakutsk is also home to the Yakutsk Extensive Air Shower installation, a cosmic-ray detector.

Similar Webcams You Might Like

More cameras from Siberia and Russia’s cold north:

• Lena River Webcam
• Lensk Webcam
• Murmansk Webcam

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Yakutsk located?

Yakutsk is the capital of the Sakha Republic, in Russia’s Far Eastern Federal District, on the Lena River. The cameras on this page are in Sector C of Zvyozdny, a new district about 7.5 kilometers (4.7 miles) southwest of Lenin Square.

What can you see on the Yakutsk Webcam?

The main view looks roughly northeast across the yard of a new three-story kindergarten, with an apartment block on the left, a lit road on the right and the rest of the city along the horizon. The second tab looks from a high roof over a construction yard toward a district of wooden houses, with a new apartment block and a tower crane on the right.

Does the Yakutsk Webcam show the airport or the city center?

No. Yakutsk Airport is on the north side of the city, about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the camera, and the center around Lenin Square is about 7.5 kilometers (4.7 miles) away. Distant apartment blocks on the horizon of the main view are as close as the camera gets to either.

Is Yakutsk the coldest city on Earth?

It is the coldest city of more than 200,000 people in the world, although a few smaller towns in the region get colder. The record low in Yakutsk is -64.4 C (-83.9 F), set on February 5, 1891, and January averages -36.9 C (-34.4 F).

How warm does it get in Yakutsk in summer?

July is the warmest month, averaging 19.9 C (67.8 F) with highs around 25.8 C (78.4 F). The record high is 38.4 C (101.1 F), set on July 17, 2011, more than 100 C (180 F) above the record low.

Is Yakutsk built on permafrost?

Yes. Yakutsk is the largest city built on continuous permafrost, and many of its houses stand on concrete piles. The kindergarten on the main camera appears to be one of them, with a dark gap between the snow and its ground floor.

Is there a bridge across the Lena River at Yakutsk?

Not yet. No bridge crosses the Lena anywhere in the Sakha Republic, so traffic uses a ferry in summer and an ice road in winter. A Lena bridge was approved in 2019 and construction began in 2024, with completion estimated for 2028.

Source: Yakutsk+