Most precipitation falls in the summer. Snow comes early in the fall and lasts on the ground into early summer. Tundra climates Tundra climates are dry, with a brief, chilly summer and a bitterly cold winter. Icecap climates Icecap climates are the coldest on earth. Summer temperatures rarely rise above the freezing point.
Temperatures are extremely low during the long, dark winter.
Precipitation is meager and is almost always in the form of snow. Highland climates Highland climates occur in mountainous regions. A highland climate zone is composed of several areas whose climates are like those found in flat terrain. Because air temperature decreases with increasing elevation in the mountains, each climate area is restricted to a certain range of altitude. A mountain climber may encounter the same sequence of climates in several thousand meters of elevation as he or she would encounter traveling northward several thousand kilometers.