Cath Senker - Desert Climates

The record for the highest temperature in the world is held by Greenland Ranch in Death Valley, California. It hit a scorching 134F (56.7C) on July 10, 1913.

Hot deserts have hardly any rain. Why is there so little? As air at the Equator rises and cools, the water vapor in the air condenses, turning into water drops. The water drops form clouds and fall as rain over the tropical regions. The air moves north and south to about 30 latitude on either side of the .

At night, even hot deserts can be cold. With little vegetation and no clouds in the sky, much of the daytime heat quickly escapes into space after sunset. The temperature drops dramatically.

Desert rainfall is extremely unpredictable. Some years, it doesnt rain at all. When it does rain, sometimes all the years rain arrives in just a few days or even on one day.

One of the driest places on Earth is the Atacama Desert in Chile, South America. In the northern town of Arica, Chile, an average of less than 0.02 inch (0.05 cm) of rain falls each year. But in October 2015, a downpour of 0.9 inch (2.3 cm) of rain fell in one day. Flower seeds that had been buried in the ground for years began to grow. The desert bloomed with brightly colored blossoms. This only happens about every five to ten years.

The flowers in the Atacama Desert in Chile last for only a very brief time.

The largest hot desert is the Sahara, in Africa. The largest cold (non-polar) desert is the Gobi, in Asia. Sahara and Gobi both mean desert in the local languages so they are both called desert desert in English!

In contrast to the Atacama and most other deserts, the Sonoran Desert in North America has more rainfall. It is still dry and hot, but it has a lot more vegetation and wildlife than other desert regions.

For extremes of hot and cold, check out the Gobi Desert. In this cold desert, winter temperatures plunge to an average low of 40F (40C). Thats way too cold to step outdoors for very long. Winters are long and cold, and the temperature remains below freezing for much of the year. Yet the summer is unbearably hot and dry, with temperatures hitting 113F (45C) in July.