The plateau area has a subarctic climate and only supports sparse tundra vegetation. The shattered terrain is more like the high ground in the arctic regions of Canada or Norway than the European Alps or North American Rocky Mountains. The weather often deteriorates rapidly with elevation, so that when there are moderate conditions 150 metres below the plateau the top can be stormy or misty and there can be icy or powdery snow. Even when no snow is falling the wind can whip up lying snow to produce white-out conditions for a few metres above the surface and snowdrifts can build up rapidly in sheltered places. Gravel can be blown through the air and walking can be impossible. Adam Watson says, When a gale is accompanied by thick storms of ground drift, or worse, by heavy falling blizzards plus ground drift, or worse still by mist as well, conditions can be extremely serious on the plateau, making it suffocating and difficult to breathe, hard to open your eyes, impossible to see anything beyond your own feet, and unable to communicate with your party except one at a time by cupping an ear and shouting into it. In January 1993 a wind speed of was measured at Cairngorm summit weather station - the greatest wind speed ever recorded over land in the UK.