Climatic Region: Desert climate

The world climate can be divided into 8 major regions. These are the Equatorial region climate, the Savanna climate, the Desert climate, the Mediterranean climate, the Steppe climate, the Siberian climate, the Tundra climate and the Tropical Monsoon climate. In this article, we will be reading about the Climatic Region: Desert climate. A Desert is a region where the level of evaporation is more than the level of precipitation. It is an arid area that gets less than 10 inches or 25 centimetres of rain annually. This can be further categorised into two types – the hot desert and the mid-latitude desert. The Sahara Desert is an example of a hot desert and The Gobi Desert is an example of a mid-latitude desert. 

Hot desert 

Within the Climatic Region: Desert Climate, the hot desert is also known as the Trade Wind Desert because the dryness of this desert is caused due to off-shore trade winds. Some of the biggest hot deserts in the world are the Sahara Desert, Iranian Desert, Arabian Desert, Namib Desert, Thar Desert and the Great Australian Desert. These are located in between latitudes 15 degrees and 30 degrees north and south, usually on the western coastal regions of the continents. 

The Peruvian or Atacama Desert in South America is a hot desert that is also referred to as the driest desert in the world. This region receives less than two centimetres of rainfall in the whole year. There are places in the Atacama Desert that have not recorded even a drop of rainfall since the desert was found. 

The North American desert starts in Mexico and extends into the USA. It is known by different names such as Californian Desert, Sonoran Desert, Mexican Desert, and Mohave Desert. 

Climate of hot deserts

• Hot deserts do not experience any cold season. The average temperature in summer is about thirty degrees Celsius 
• The temperature is so high because of the dry air, quick evaporation rate, clear and cloudless sky. 
• In 1922, Libya’s A1 Azizia recorded the highest temperature of 57.77 degrees Celsius 
• Some of the coastal areas of hot deserts experience lower temperatures because of their proximity to water. But the interior regions of these deserts are very hot during the summer months and very cold during the winter months. So much so that it can get frosty during winters. 
• The temperature rises with the sun and quickly cools down after sunsets. 
• The diurnal temperature range in these hot deserts is generally high with an average of fourteen to 25 degrees Celsius.

Mid-latitude deserts 

Mid-latitude deserts are another type of Desert Climate. Such deserts are usually located away from the sea and do not get any rainfall. It has a temperate climate and most of them are formed in a plateau. There are two reasons for the formation of mid-latitude deserts. This is the rain-shadow effect, for example, Patagonian Desert, and continentality, for example, the Gobi Desert. 

Some of the mid-latitude deserts are Argentina’s Patagonian Desert, Taklimakan, Kyzyl Kum, Gobi Desert, Turkestan, Ladakh, and drier areas of the Great Basin Desert in the United States of America. 

The climate of a Mid latitude desert:

• Mid-latitude deserts are located in plateau regions, generally surrounded by high mountains. These in-land areas are very distant from the seas. Their formation is mainly due to the lack of rain. As they are sheltered by the mountains, the winds bearing rain are unable to reach these regions. 
• During the winter months, these mid latitude deserts may experience snowfalls. This is because of their altitude and coldness. Sometimes depressions in the climatic conditions bring about light rainfall. 
• Here winters can get severe with strong chilly winds blowing constantly. Rivers and lakes often get frozen, but when they thaw during the summer months, there are chances of floods. The average temperature of a mid latitude desert fluctuates between 40 degrees Celsius in the summers to – 40 degrees Celsius during the winters. These areas receive rainfall that is anywhere between 10 to 30 centimetres in a year. 

Natural Vegetation 

The natural vegetation of a desert climate is resistant to drought. It is known as Xerophytic vegetation, which means it has plants that are adapted to grow and survive little water intake. These include acacias, thorny bushes, cacti, and grasses with long roots. Some date palms grow around areas where groundwater is available. 

To avoid loss of water, desert plants have hairy, leathery, waxy or needle-like surfaces. The shrubs are spaced away from one another so their long roots can look for groundwater. The salinity of the hot desert soil is high because of intense evaporation. Therefore, many plants that grow in deserts are salt tolerant.

Saguaro cacti, found in Southwest America’s Sonoran Desert is considered to be one of the most complex vegetation. They grow extremely slowly, and are known to live up to 400 years.

Life in the Deserts

In spite of the extremities in the Desert Climate, people have lived in these areas of the world. Be it the nomadic population of Tuaregs in the Sahara Desert, the Gobi Mongols in the Gobi Desert, or the Bedouin Arabs in the Arabian Desert, herdsmen have made deserts their home. It is also inhabited by primitive gatherers and hunters such as Bindibu of Australia or Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert. 

These desert settlements relied on using whatever means that was available to them, to survive. Cultivators rely on the Imperial Valley’s Colorado River in California, Pakistan’s Indus River and Iraq’s Tigris-Euphrates River for their agricultural needs. 

Oases are created in some areas of the deserts where the underground water comes up to the surface. Generally, the regions surrounding these water bodies act as a place where people create their homes. Some oases are really big and offer support to a wide variety of populations, for example, Morocco’s Tafilalet Oasis has a population of approximately 1.7 million people. 

Some crops that are grown in the Desert Climate are Wheat, Barley, Maize, Cotton, Sugar Cane and a few varieties of vegetables and fruits. Date Palm is one of the most important trees, and dates are a popularly consumed fruit of this region. 

Conclusion:

To summarise, the Climatic Region: Desert Climate is a place that gets less than 25 cms of rainfall throughout a year. The hot deserts are usually found on the western coasts of their continents and mid-latitude deserts are formed in plateaus that are surrounded by mountains. The summers are extremely hot and the winters are extremely cold in these areas. The natural vegetation consists of plants that can grow and survive using very little water. The deserts have evolved over centuries and due to the abuse that nature faces at the hands of humans, desertification is a major concern in today’s time.