One finds a remarkable statement in the exposition of Leucippus’ views by Diogenes Laertius: “The Arctic region is always full of snow, and is extremely cold and frozen” (D.L. 9. 33). I will argue that such a view, whether conceived by Leucippus or just employed by him, arose as a thoughtful theoretical construction partly based on nontrivial information. Plin. NH 4. 94 cites Hecataeus (of Miletus rather than of Abdera) for the notion of a “frozen sea” in the far north. An idea that the ice and snow are always present in the Arctic region figures in ancient meteorological tradition (e.g. Aristot. Mete. 361b36 sqq.). Moreover, it is used there as an explanatory factor for the so-called Etesian winds, which goes back to the late six or early fifth centuries. A similar statement concerning polar conditions appears in the Zhou bi suan jing, a Chinese treatise, probably of the first century AD: “In the region of the north pole, there is unmelting ice in summer” (C. Cullen. Astronomy and Mathematics in Ancient China: the Zhou bi suan jing. Cambridge, 1996. P. 192, F 9). Cristopher Cullen admits that this view could be result of actual geographical information. I will suggest that the Greek origin of the statement in the Zhou bi is nevertheless quite a plausible option.