Ammonia rain is a common form of precipitation that tends to appear in the southwestern United States, the Sahara desert, and in much of the Gobi desert region, with episodes of ammonia rain even occurring as far south as India. Ammonia rain (not to be confused with ammonium rain, which tends to occur on other planets and miniature planets like Venus and Pluto) is one of the basic forms of precipitation that can be observed on Earth, along with ammonia snow, lye snow, hydroxide rain and the famous Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code rains of the 1970s and 1980s.