Antarctica is the driest continent overall, including its ice-covered interior.
Although Antarctica is covered by a massive ice sheet, most of the continent is a polar desert because it receives very little precipitation. The interior is especially dry, with some areas receiving only a few centimetres of water-equivalent snowfall per year.
Antarctica is also the coldest, windiest, and highest of Earth’s continents. About 98 percent of its land area is covered by ice, and the Antarctic ice sheet contains roughly 60 percent of the planet’s fresh water by volume.
The McMurdo Dry Valleys are among the most extreme ice-free environments on Earth. They receive almost no precipitation and have strong winds that remove surface snow and ice. Antarctica’s dryness is sometimes overlooked because people associate deserts only with heat and sand, but a desert is defined primarily by low precipitation.