Record low temperatures in Sweden...

This is shaping up to be a very cold January....

Temperatures of -37.7 degrees Celsius were recorded on Thursday night in a small town in northern Sweden, making it the coldest night of the winter so far.

The icy thermometer reading was taken at Åsele in the province of Västerbotten, 630 kilometres north of Stockholm.

The towns of Vilhelmina and Gielas were marginally less chilly, with temperatures dropping to -37.5 and -36.3.

Gielas set the previous record for the current winter just one night earlier, when temperatures fell to -35.6.