Iced cap: Ottawa currently coldest capital city in the world

The Parliament buildings in Ottawa. Photo from Getty Images.

The extreme cold has pushed Ottawa well below the rest of the world's coldest capital cities.

Mongolia's capital, Ulan Bator, is on average the coldest national capital in the world.

But Ottawa's overnight temperature of –29 C on Wednesday fell below that for Ulan Bator, which experienced an overnight low of about –26 C.

Moscow and Astana, Kazakhstan, two of the other coldest capitals according to the World Atlas, recorded Wednesday overnight lows of around 2 C and –13 C, respectively.

Some other temperatures from world capitals recorded overnight:

- Helsinki 1 C

- Reykjavik –4 C

- Tallinn 0 C

- Nuuk, Greenland –6 C

The overnight temperature in Novosibirsk, the unofficial capital of the Russian region of Siberia, reached a low of –14.

With wind chills making it feel like –36 in Ottawa, the public health office issued a frostbite warning that remained in effect Thursday.