A brutally cold dome of high pressure across eastern Asia has produced what may be the highest barometric pressure readings ever documented on planet Earth — with an important qualifier. At 7 a.m. local time on Tuesday, the mean sea-level pressure at Tsetsen-Uul, Mongolia, rose to 1,094.3 millibars, or 32.31 inches. The high pressure was accompanied by a bone-chilling temperature of minus-49.9 degrees (minus-45.5 Celsius).

The pressure reading at Tsetsen-Uul tops the 1,089.4 millibars observed at Tosontsengel, also in Mongolia, on Dec. 30, 2004, judged by the World Meteorological Organization to be the world pressure record for elevations above 2,461 feet (750 meters). Tosontsengel is located at an altitude of 5,658 feet (1,725 meters), and Tsetsen-Uul is at 6,325 feet (1,928 meters).
Several other stations near Tsetsen-Uul reported extremely high pressure values, including 1,091.9 millibars at Tosontsengel.