'Snowlashes' Instagram trend takes off in freezing Russian winter

Temperatures hit minus 67 degrees in Russia's remote Yakutia region this month

Even eyelashes are freezing in the Yakutia region of Russia (around 5,500 kilometres east of Moscow) during a cold snap this month. Anastasiagav / Instagram

The Yakutia region in Siberia makes up one-fifth of Russia's territory and is also one of the coldest places on earth.

This month temperatures have dropped to minus 67 degrees Celsius in some parts of the region (which is home to nearly one million people).

Students routinely go to school in the village of Oymyakon when temperatures are at around minus 40 degrees, but according to state news agency Ria Novosti schools were closed when the temperatures started to hit minus 55 degrees Celsius last week.

One unusual and very 'Instagrammable' consequence of the cold spell are 'snowlashes' - a phenomenon that sees eyelashes freeze over - this photo, posted last week by @AnastasiaGav, has been shared countless times and liked 81,535 times:

Here are some other photos from the Yakutia region tagged with #snowlash this month. They certainly put the UAE's current 'cold spell' into perspective:

Here's another unusual consqeuence of the extreme cold - fish markets at which all the fresh fish can't help but become frozen goods:

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