Snow and Ice Climate

snow and ice climate, major climate type of the Köppen classification characterized by bitterly cold temperatures and scant precipitation. It occurs poleward of 65° N and S latitude over the ice caps of Greenland and Antarctica and over the permanently frozen portion of the Arctic Ocean. It is abbreviated EF in the Köppen-Geiger-Pohl system.

In snow and ice climate regions, temperatures are below freezing throughout the year, and annual temperature ranges are large but again not as large as in the continental subarctic climates. Winters are frigid, with mean monthly temperatures from −20 °C to −65 °C (–4 °F to –85 °F); the lowest temperatures occur at the end of the long polar night. Precipitation is meager in the cold, stable air (in most cases, 5 to 50 cm [2 to 20 inches]), with the largest amounts occurring on the coastal margins. Most of this precipitation results from the periodic penetration of a cyclone into the region, which brings snow and ice pellets and, with strong winds, blizzards. High winds also occur in the outer portions of the Greenland and Antarctic EF climates, where cold, dense air drains off the higher, central sections of the ice caps as katabatic winds.

The EF climate holds the distinction for the lowest recorded temperatures at Earth’s surface: the Vostok II research station in Antarctica holds the record for the lowest extreme temperature (−89.2 °C [–129 °F]), while the Plateau Station has the lowest annual mean (−56 °C [–69 °F]). Daily temperature variations are very small, because the presence of snow and ice at the surface refrigerates the air.