Snow falls on every continent, including Africa and parts of the tropics, but it’s concentrated overwhelmingly in the Northern Hemisphere. Seasonal snow cover extends across roughly 43 million square kilometers of land globally, with the vast majority found in cold and polar climates above 40 degrees latitude. Where exactly snow shows up depends on a combination of temperature, moisture, and elevation, which means some surprising places get snow while some bitterly cold places almost never do.
What It Takes for Snow to Fall
Snow forms when the atmosphere is at or below freezing (0°C / 32°F) and there’s enough moisture in the air. If the ground is also at or below freezing, the snow sticks. But snow can still reach the ground even when surface temperatures are slightly above freezing, because melting snowflakes cool the surrounding air through evaporation. As a general rule, snow won’t form if the ground temperature is above 5°C (41°F).
One common misconception is that extreme cold automatically means heavy snow. It can never be too cold to snow, but it can be too dry. Antarctica’s Dry Valleys, for example, are brutally cold yet receive almost no snowfall because the air holds virtually no moisture and strong winds strip away what little remains. Snow needs both cold and humidity working together.
The Northern Hemisphere’s Snow Belt
The biggest concentration of snowfall on Earth stretches across the upper latitudes of North America, Europe, and Asia. Canada, Russia, Scandinavia, and the northern United States all receive reliable seasonal snow, typically from late autumn through spring. Over 99% of the world’s seasonal snow regimes fall within cold or polar climate zones, and the Northern Hemisphere contains most of them simply because it has far more landmass at high latitudes than the Southern Hemisphere does.
Some cities in this belt receive staggering amounts. Aomori City in northern Japan averages more than 300 inches (about 7.6 meters) of snow per year, making it the snowiest city on the planet. Japan’s heavy snowfall comes from cold Siberian air masses picking up moisture as they cross the Sea of Japan, then dumping it on the mountainous western coast. Cities like Sapporo, Buffalo, and Quebec City are also famously snowy, but none come close to Aomori’s totals.
How Elevation Changes Everything
Near the equator, temperatures at sea level never drop low enough for snow. But climb high enough and snow is possible at any latitude. In the tropics, the snow line sits above roughly 5,000 meters (about 16,400 feet), meaning only the tallest peaks see it. Move toward the mid-latitudes, around 35 to 40 degrees north or south, and the snow line drops to consistent levels across continents. Above 40 degrees latitude, snow regularly falls at elevations below 1,500 meters, and in polar regions it reaches sea level.
This elevation effect explains why snow appears in places most people wouldn’t expect. Hawaii’s Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa volcanoes, both rising to nearly 13,800 feet, receive a dusting of snow almost every year between October and April. Up to five inches can fall during a single storm. These are tropical islands surrounded by warm ocean water, but the summits sit high enough for freezing temperatures.
Snow in Africa
Africa is not the snow-free continent many people imagine. Several mountain ranges receive regular snowfall. The Atlas Mountains of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia see enough snow that several ski resorts operate there (though most rely partly on machine-made snow). Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Mount Kenya in Kenya carry permanent ice and snow near their summits. The Rwenzori Mountains straddling Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, sometimes called the “Mountains of the Moon,” also hold glacial ice and seasonal snow.
Further south, the Drakensberg Mountains of South Africa and Lesotho receive snow every year. Lesotho even has ski facilities. South African snowstorms occasionally blanket regions well beyond the mountains: in July 2021, widespread snow covered the highlands and reached parts of the Northern Cape and Gauteng. Ethiopia’s Simien Mountains and Egypt’s Saint Catherine region near Mount Sinai also see occasional snowfall.
Snow in South America and the Andes
The Andes run about 7,200 kilometers along the western edge of South America, passing through multiple climate zones. Every austral winter (June through August), fresh snow covers the central Andes in Chile and Argentina, filling gaps between permanently snow-capped peaks. Moist air from the Pacific Ocean is carried inland by westerly winds, delivering heavier precipitation to the western side of the range.
This snowpack is far more than scenic. It serves as the primary water source for communities at lower elevations across central-western Argentina and central Chile, feeding streams that supply cities with drinking water, hydroelectric power, and irrigation for agriculture. Further south, in Patagonia, snow falls at much lower elevations and covers broad areas of both Chile and Argentina during winter.
Snow in Australia and New Zealand
Australia receives seasonal snow in its southeastern alpine regions, primarily in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales and the Victorian Alps. These areas support ski resorts, though Australia’s snow season is modest compared to major Northern Hemisphere destinations.
New Zealand gets considerably more snow. The Southern Alps on the South Island accumulate heavy snowfall each winter, along with inland areas of Canterbury and Otago. On the North Island, the Central Plateau around the volcanic peaks also receives reliable snow. Queenstown, Wānaka, and the Central Plateau are the most popular areas for skiing and snowboarding.
Snow in the Desert
Even the Sahara, the world’s largest hot desert, occasionally sees snow. The Algerian town of Aïn Séfra has received snowfall in the winters of 1979, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2021, and 2022. Some of these events were light dustings that briefly coated sand dunes, while the 2018 event dropped up to 30 centimeters in higher-elevation areas. Temperatures in the Algerian Sahara have dropped as low as minus 14°C. Because satellite records only go back to the 1970s and the Sahara is vast and sparsely monitored, historical snowfall there may have been more common than the short record suggests.
Places That Have Never Seen Snow
A handful of countries and territories have no recorded snowfall in modern history. Fiji and several of its South Pacific neighbors have never experienced snow. The U.S. Virgin Islands have a record low temperature of just 18°C (65°F), far too warm for any form of frozen precipitation. New Delhi, India, saw frost in 2006 but has never recorded actual snow. Most low-lying equatorial nations in Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and the Pacific Islands fall into this category, where temperatures simply never approach freezing at any accessible elevation.
The global pattern is clear: snow is possible almost anywhere if you go high enough, but at ground level it’s largely a product of latitude. The further you move from the equator and the higher you climb, the more likely you are to find it. What makes the picture interesting are the exceptions, from Hawaiian volcanoes dusted white to Saharan dunes briefly coated in frost, reminders that snow’s reach extends well beyond the places we typically associate with winter.