Russia recorded a difference of 85.6 Celsius (153 Fahrenheit) in its southern and eastern regions, the second biggest for any country since 1954.  The mercury in Delyankir, in the Sakha Republic in the country’s far east, plummeted to -61.1 Celsius (-78 Fahrenheit) on Wednesday, one of the coldest temperatures recorded ever in Russia and its lowest since 1984. Meteorologist Thierry Goose tweeted that it was also the first time the mercury had dropped below -60°C in Russia in December since 2008.

On the same day, around 3,700 miles away in Shatoy, in the southern republic of Chechnya the temperature settled at a balmy 24.5 degrees Celsius (76 Fahrenheit).

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The United States holds the biggest temperature difference record of 88.7 Celsius when the mercury varied from 32.2 Celsius to -56.5 Celsius on January 20, 1954, according to data from the Climate Reanalyzer.

“Insane temperature contrast in Russia today,” tweeted meteorologist Scott Duncan, who said it was “one of the largest temperature contrasts ever recorded for a single country.”

He added that minus 60C temperatures are “rare” and has not been observed outside the Greenland plateau in the Northern Hemisphere for 10 years.

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Lead scientist at the Phobos weather center Evgeniy Tishkovets told Russian state news agency TASS that the usual temperature range between the northern and southern parts of the country were between 10C and 15C (50F to 60F)

He said that Wednesday’s contrast in temperatures was an “extreme anomaly,” and that in European parts of Russia that day the difference was as much as 50C (122 F).

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World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) Russia’s head of climate and energy research Alexei Kokorin told the Moscow Times that in the coming decade, Russia will have to deal with more extreme weather phenomenons such as heatwaves and droughts in the south of the country and more extreme precipitation in other areas.

In August, a United Nations report IPCC warned that climate change will bring further extremes in temperatures.

Russian President Vladimir Putin this year set a target of reaching carbon neutrality by 2060 amid mounting concerns over global warming.