Topic – Hot and Cold Deserts

Hot and Cold Deserts

Sahara Desert

What Is a Desert?

A desert is a place that gets very little precipitation. Precipitation is water that falls from the sky, such as rain. Snow is also precipitation because it is frozen water.

Deserts are usually windy places where few people live. There are not many plants that can grow in deserts. Most plants need more water than they could get in a desert.

People often think of deserts as hot places. Did you know that there are also cold deserts?

Hot Deserts

Hot deserts get very hot during the day, but they can get cold at night. Summer and winter temperatures are about the same. The land in a hot desert is covered with sand. Animals that live in some hot deserts include camels, snakes, and foxes.

Fact File: The Sahara Desert in Africa is the world’s largest hot desert. It is almost as large as the United States! In some parts of the Sahara Desert, it does not rain for many years.

Cold Deserts

Cold deserts are cold in winter, but they get warm weather during a short summer. A cold desert gets more precipitation than a hot desert, but cold deserts are still dry places. Some of the precipitation in a cold desert is snow that falls in winter. Winters are long in cold deserts, so the land is covered with snow most of the year. Animals that live in some cold deserts include rabbits, mice, and foxes.

Fact File: The Gobi Desert in China is a cold desert. More kinds of plants grow in this desert than in many other cold deserts. The first dinosaur eggs ever discovered were found in the Gobi Desert.

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