Oerba in Final Fantasy XIII?

So my friend and I are having a little argument about the game Final Fantasy XIII, but more specifically the forsaken town of Oerba. My friend thinks that Oerba's beautiful landscape has been covered in sand, tons and tons of white sand. I think that Oerba has be covered in snow, because of course snow is white, and the local Cie'th stone calls it the white wasteland (a common name for tundras). Who's right here?