The temperature regime of the summit is, as a result, remarkably stable compared to what you might expect at the same altitude in a clearer climate.

The nights are cool — temperatures near or below 10 degrees Celsius are common — but the days rarely become very warm because the cloud cover limits solar heating.

The result is a climate that is consistently cool and wet rather than dramatically variable.

The plants and animals of the summit are adapted to this cool-wet regime.

The Roraima bush toad, for instance, cannot tolerate the warm temperatures that characterize the lowland habitats below — it is, physiologically, a cool-climate species.

If the cloud cover that moderates summit temperatures were to decrease significantly — as might happen under climate scenarios that shift the altitude of cloud formation — the bush toad would face conditions outside its physiological tolerance range.