The country falls into four horizontal temperature zones based primarily on elevation, having tropical, dry, temperate with dry winters, and polar (alpine tundra) climates, amongst others. In the tropical zone—below —temperatures are hot, with yearly averages ranging between . The temperate zone ranges between  with averages from ; many of Venezuela's cities, including the capital, lie in this region. Colder conditions with temperatures from  are found in the cool zone between , especially in the Venezuelan Andes, where pastureland and permanent snowfield with yearly averages below  cover land above  in the ''páramos''.