Climate Zone Map

Antarctica climate zones

The most common zone is EF, ice cap (frost), covering 100% of the land in 1991 to 2020.

World map of Köppen-Geiger climate zones, 1991 to 2020Tap or scroll to load the interactive map

Period shown on the map
80%

Köppen-Geiger classes are based on 30-year averages of temperature and rain, not on the weather on any one day.

Key

A: Tropical

  • Af Tropical rainforest
  • Am Tropical monsoon
  • Aw Tropical savannah

B: Arid

  • BWh Hot desert
  • BWk Cold desert
  • BSh Hot semi-arid (steppe)
  • BSk Cold semi-arid (steppe)

C: Temperate

  • Csa Hot-summer Mediterranean
  • Csb Warm-summer Mediterranean
  • Csc Cold-summer Mediterranean
  • Cwa Humid subtropical with dry winter
  • Cwb Subtropical highland (dry winter)
  • Cwc Cold subtropical highland (dry winter)
  • Cfa Humid subtropical
  • Cfb Temperate oceanic
  • Cfc Subpolar oceanic

D: Cold (continental)

  • Dsa Hot-summer continental with dry summer
  • Dsb Warm-summer continental with dry summer
  • Dsc Subarctic with dry summer
  • Dsd Subarctic with dry summer and very cold winter
  • Dwa Hot-summer continental with dry winter
  • Dwb Warm-summer continental with dry winter
  • Dwc Subarctic with dry winter
  • Dwd Subarctic with dry winter and very cold winter
  • Dfa Hot-summer humid continental
  • Dfb Warm-summer humid continental
  • Dfc Subarctic (boreal)
  • Dfd Subarctic with very cold winter

E: Polar

  • ET Tundra
  • EF Ice cap (frost)

How to read the map. Each colour is a Köppen-Geiger climate class. The first letter is the major group (A tropical, B arid, C temperate, D cold, E polar); the other letters say how dry it is and how warm or cold. Tap anywhere to see the class under that spot in 1901 to 1930, 1991 to 2020 and, under three emissions scenarios, 2071 to 2099. The codes and names are always given in words, because colour alone is hard to tell apart for some people.

Climate zones in Antarctica, 1991 to 2020

Share of Antarctica's classified land in each Köppen-Geiger zone in 1991 to 2020. Zones under 0.05% are left out. The 87,047,503 map cells used cover 100% of the country's outline (about 12,244,946 km²).

EF Ice cap (frost)100%
ET Tundra0.3%

By major group: E (polar) 100%.

Almost all of Antarctica is one climate: EF, ice cap (frost), which covers 100% of its classified land in 1991 to 2020. In plain terms, ice cap (frost) means frozen all year. Under the middle-of-the-road scenario (SSP2-4.5), almost none of Antarctica changes zone by 2071 to 2099 (0.3%).

How Antarctica's zones have changed and may change

Each row compares a map with 1991 to 2020. "Share in a different zone" is the share of the country's area whose class is different from 1991 to 2020. Future rows are model projections under an emissions scenario, not forecasts.

MapShare in a different zoneDifferent major groupBiggest gainBiggest loss
1901 to 1930 (past)0%0%No changeNo change
2071 to 2099, SSP1-2.6 (low emissions)0.2%0%No changeNo change
2071 to 2099, SSP2-4.5 (middle of the road)0.3%0%ET +0.1 percentage pointsEF -0.1 percentage points
2071 to 2099, SSP5-8.5 (high emissions)0.7%0%ET +0.6 percentage pointsEF -0.6 percentage points

For the past row, the comparison runs the other way: the 1901 to 1930 map against 1991 to 2020.

Zone shares by map

Zone1901 to 19301991 to 2020SSP1-2.6 (2071 to 2099)SSP2-4.5 (2071 to 2099)SSP5-8.5 (2071 to 2099)
EF Ice cap (frost)100%100%100%100%99%
ET Tundra0.3%0.3%0.3%0.4%0.9%

Percentages are of the country's classified land in each map. A dash means under 0.05%.

Zones found in Antarctica

All countries · All climate zones

Data: Beck et al. (2023), CC BY 4.0; country outlines from Natural Earth. In 1901 to 1930 the most common zone was EF. See data sources and licences.

Embed this map

Copy this code into your web page. It is free to use. Please keep the link under the map, as it is how people find where the map comes from.