Crete has a temperate Mediterranean climate: dry summers, high temperatures, drought, and damp winters. The vegetation is evergreen and sclerophyllous. Crete shares these climatic conditions with only a few other areas: California, Chile, southwestern Australia and South Africa. In these regions the temperature ranges from 32 to 40o C. The great climatic variations of certain areas of Crete and their direct effects on vegetation depend mostly on their distance from the sea and their altitude. High mountains are always exposed to low temperatures and snowfall in winter, and the peaks are covered in snow throughout the year. The climate in the Aegean developed between the late Pleistocene and the early Holocene period. All available evidence indicates that the present climate is similar to that of the Minoan period.