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Oct 19, 2023 · The four main types of desert include hot and dry deserts, semi-arid deserts, coastal deserts, and cold deserts. In hot and dry deserts, also known as arid deserts, the temperatures are warm and dry year-round.
People often use the adjectives “hot,” “dry,” and “empty” to describe deserts, but these words do not tell the whole story. Although some deserts are very hot, with daytime temperatures as high as 54°C (130°F), other deserts have cold winters or are cold year-round.
- The Four Types of Deserts
- Hot and Dry Deserts
- Semiarid Deserts
- Coastal Deserts
- Cold Deserts
Hot and dry deserts are also known as arid or subtropical deserts. True to their name, they tend to be very hot and dry all year round. The average temperature hovers around 20-25 degrees Celsius, but it can go up to a scorching fifty degrees. In fact, the surface of these types of deserts receive twice the amount of solar radiation than other less...
Semiarid deserts are also known as cold-winter deserts. They are quite similar to the first type, but are typically not as hot. Long and arid summers are followed by a few months of winter. During the summer, the temperature rests around the mid-20 degree Celsius range. It can get much hotter, but does not normally rise any higher than 38 degrees, ...
Unsurprisingly, coastal desertsare located along coasts next to large bodies of water, such as oceans. They experience warm summers that never quite reach the blazing temperatures of the above two types. The average temperature hovers around 13-24 degrees Celsius and rarely goes above 35 degrees. Winters are cooler, frequently teeter-tottering at t...
Antarctica and the Arctic are both classified as cold deserts. Due to their positions at the northern and southern poles of our planet, they are also known as polar deserts. They are the largest deserts in the worldat 5.5 and 5.4 million square miles respectively. The former makes up the entire continent, while the latter stretches across numerous ...
- Nathaniel Whelan
Oct 19, 2023 · Despite the common conceptions of deserts as hot, there are cold deserts as well. The largest hot desert in the world, northern Africa's Sahara, reaches temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Farenheit) during the day.
Cold desert climates (BWk) usually feature hot (or warm in a few instances), dry summers, though summers are not typically as hot as hot desert climates. Unlike hot desert climates, cold desert climates tend to feature cold, dry winters. Snow tends to be rare in regions with this climate.
What are the characteristics of hot deserts? Hot deserts typically contain little or no vegetation. The main characteristics of hot deserts are: Aridity – the primary characteristic of a hot desert is its dryness or aridity. Hot deserts have total annual rainfall below 250 centimetres per year.
Desert biomes can be classified according to several characteristics. There are four major types of deserts: Hot and dry; Semiarid; Coastal; Cold; Hot and dry desert. The four major North American deserts of this type are the Chihuahuan, Sonoran, Mojave and Great Basin.
