The rain season starts in December and lasts into May, however, precipitation throughout the rain season is generally very light. During some winters, moisture-abundant blizzards make their way down from the Alborz mountains to the north of the city and dump several centimeters of snow in a single twenty-four-hour period. As a result of the city's position straddling the open desert plain, many winter days are dominated by a cold and gusty wind that often produces a potent windchill factor which makes the city feel much colder than the actual air temperature. According to Iranian Meteorological statistics, Semnan experiences around 48 days in which the temperature falls below freezing each year.