13 people freeze to death in Mongolia in January

ULAN BATOR, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia has recorded 13 hypothermia deaths in January 2026, the country's National Police Agency (NPA) said on Tuesday.

Half of the victims had drunk alcohol, the NPA said in a statement.

Alcohol ingestion was the main cause of hypothermia during cold exposure, it added.

Since mid-January, a cold air mass originating in Siberia, Russia, swept across large parts of Mongolia, bringing frosts and causing temperature drops.

On Jan. 21, overnight temperatures plummeted to minus 45.2 degrees Celsius in Eruu soum, an administrative subdivision of the northern Mongolian province of Selenge, according to the country's weather monitoring agency.

Mongolia's harsh and cold winter lasts for quite a long time. Temperature can range between minus 25 degrees Celsius and minus 45 degrees Celsius.■