Desert Climate
A desert is a place where rainfall is very low during the year. Sometimes, it may not rain in a desert for several years, and when it does, it may be in the form of a short deluge leading to a flash flood. In these hot deserts like the Sahara in Northern Africa, daytime temperatures during the summer often exceed 40°C, and it has not been unknown for it to rise to 50°C. Skies are usually clear blue, but at night, especially during the winter, this allows them to cool down rapidly, and frosts have been known to occur. Under these conditions, vegetation finds it very hard to survive, and large areas may be covered in sand dunes.
Not all deserts are hot. Some like the Gobi Desert in central Asia do have hot summers, but can experience very cold winters as well, with temperatures falling to -30°C. Cold deserts also occur in the polar regions of the Arctic and Antarctic, because the air is so cold and dry, so there is very little moisture to form snowfall.
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