A Novosibirsk resident demonstrated the depths of the cold in his city by pouring a pot of boiling water into the air from one of the top floors of his apartment building, and watched it instantly turn into a cloud of frozen droplets.

The unidentified man showed a temperature reading of minus 41 degrees Celsius on his mobile phone before launching the water out the window.

The footage has emerged as severe frost affects large parts of Russia. In the far eastern regions of the country temperatures have fallen to minus 50 degrees Celsius, with minus 20 degrees Celsius recorded in central parts.

Meteorologists say that for some regions such low temperatures have not been recorded for more than half a century.