The jagged mountains were capped with snow.

Anyone having a white Christmas this year?

Slowly, the procession wound its way along paths through Letná s woods, now covered in white.

As the snow fills the streets and sidewalks of Moscow it is usually scraped off as soon as it hits the ground.

KYIV From snowy Kyiv, I have watched the successful revolutions in Cairo and Tunis with joy and admiration.

The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is a spectacular triangular snowcapped block of rock that towers over the eastern part of this lowland.

Snow is common from December to February on average, there are 48 days with snow cover recorded each winter season.

Arriving at Katsikas in mid April, I was immediately struck by the contrast in settings picturesque, snow capped mountains dominate the horizon, with rolling green foothills in the foreground while the camp is a dusty sea of large jagged rocks and row upon row of identical triangular tents.

Complicating matters further are geographical and climactic disparities among constituencies. The Himalayan highlands, for example, will remain snowbound until May, by which time monsoon rains will have begun to sweep southern and northeastern India.

Most of the Earth s snow covered area (SCA) is located in the Northern Hemisphere, and temporal variability is dominated by the seasonal cycle Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent ranges from 46.5 million km² in January to 3.8 million km² in August.