Gansu generally has a semi-arid to arid continental climate (Köppen "BSk" or "BWk") with warm to hot summers and cold to very cold winters, although diurnal temperature ranges are often so large that maxima remain above even in winter. However, due to extreme altitude, some areas of Gansu exhibit a subarctic climate ("Dwc") – with winter temperatures sometimes dropping to . Most of the limited precipitation is delivered in the summer months: winters are so dry that snow cover is confined to very high altitudes and the snow line can be as high as in the southwest.