Desert

            It will probably surprise you to find out that there are two types of desert – hot and cold! One thing that hot and cold deserts have in common is that they are dry. Deserts get less than 250mm of rainfall each year.

            Hot deserts have really high temperatures and are covered with lots of sand or rock. The air is really dry, and there are very few clouds in the sky. Temperatures during the day can rise to more than 50 degress celcius  and drop to below freezing at night. It doesn’t often rain in desert, but when it does, it is usually during a storm.

            The largest hot desert in the Earth is the Sahara Desert in North Africa, where the highest temperature ever was recorded – it was 57.7 degress celcius! The Sahara only gets about  80mm of rain each year. There are many dangerous wind and sand storms which can last for a few days.

            Cold desert are covered in sand, rock, and ice. It snows in cold desert. The biggest cold desert in the world is Antartica. It is the driest continent on the planet. The lowest temperature ever recorded was in Antartica and was -89.2 degress celcius!

            Even though hot deserts are very dry, water can be found at oases. An oasis is formed when underground water comes to the surface and forms a pool. People can create an oasis by digging for water. It is because of oases that many different kins of plants and animals, as well as millions of people, live in Sahara.

            Animals have different ways of surviving in the desert. Most reptiles sleep during the day to escape the heat. They sleep under rocks and burrow into the sand where it is cooler and then come out at night. Small rodents also dig into the sand to stay cool.