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The tundra climate region occurs between 60° and 75° of latitude, mostly along the Arctic coast of North America and Eurasia and on the coastal margins of Greenland. It is abbreviated ET in the Köppen-Geiger-Pohl system.
This area is stormy in winter, with moderately high snowfall (50 to 100 inches [1,300 to 2,500 mm]), rapidly changing temperatures, and even occasional rain. Elsewhere the winter continental climate is quiet, with long periods of clear sky and low snowfall.
In the far north, seasonal snow retreat over land exposes tundra, which greens and blooms in the warmest months of the year. Moving southward, tundra slowly transitions to forest, which also sees significant seasonal snow accumulation. Arctic climate and weather are closely linked with climate and weather at lower latitudes.
Due to its northern location, the arctic tundra has a very cold climate. Temperatures range from 15.5 °C in summer to -60 °C in winter. Mean temperatures are below 0°C for six to 10 months of the year. Summers are also much shorter than winters. The northernmost part of this biome experiences close to 24 hours of sunlight in summer.
The arctic tundra has average winter temperatures of -34° C (-30° F) and average summer temperatures of 3° to 12° C (37°to 54° F). The highest parts of the arctic tundra can have winter temperature averages of −28 °C (−18 °F), sometimes dipping as low as −50 °C (−58 °F).
Tundra winters are long, dark, and cold, with mean temperatures below 0°C for six to 10 months of the year. The temperatures are so cold that there is a layer of permanently frozen ground below the surface, called permafrost. This permafrost is a defining characteristic of the tundra biome.
Alpine tundra has a more moderate climate: summers are cool, with temperatures that range from 3 to 12 °C (37 to 54 °F), and winters are moderate, with temperatures that rarely fall below –18 °C (0 °F). Unlike other biomes, such as the taiga, the Arctic tundra is defined more by its low summer temperatures than by its low winter temperatures.
Tundra ecosystems are treeless regions found in the Arctic and on the tops of mountains, where the climate is cold and windy, and rainfall is scant. Tundra lands are covered with snow for much of the year, but summer brings bursts of wildflowers.
Tundra form in two distinct cold and dry regions. Arctic tundra are found on high-latitude landmasses, above the Arctic Circle—in Alaska, Canada, Russia, Greenland, Iceland, and Scandinavia, for example—or on far southern regions, like Antarctica.
Peak vegetation greenness in 2023 was much higher than usual in North American tundra, particularly in the Beaufort Sea region, while greenness was relatively low in the Eurasian Arctic, particularly in north-central Siberia and the Russian Far Northeast.