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This list of North American deserts identifies areas of the continent that receive less than 10 in (250 mm) annual precipitation. The "North American Desert" is also the term for a large U.S. Level 1 ecoregion (EPA) [ 1 ] of the North American Cordillera , in the Deserts and xeric shrublands biome (WWF).
The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification BWh and BWk) is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert climates are dry and hold little moisture, quickly evaporating the already little rainfall they receive.
Arctic Desert – the second largest "desert" in the world, though it consists of frozen ocean, land ice, and tundra, so (like the rest of this section) not a desert climate in any conventional sense North American Arctic – a large tundra in Northern America. Greenland – mostly covered by land ice, like Antarctica
Deserts are also classified, according to their geographical location and dominant weather pattern, as trade wind, mid-latitude, rain shadow, coastal, monsoon, or polar deserts. [36] Trade wind deserts occur either side of the horse latitudes at 30° to 35° North and South.
This is a list of the largest deserts in the world by area. It includes all deserts above 50,000 km 2 (19,300 sq mi). Some of Earth's biggest non-polar deserts.
Polar deserts are the regions of Earth that fall under an ice cap climate (EF under the Köppen classification). Despite rainfall totals low enough to normally classify as a desert , polar deserts are distinguished from true deserts ( BWh or BWk under the Köppen classification) by low annual temperatures and evapotranspiration .
Tropical deserts are located in regions between 15 and 30 degrees latitude. The environment is very extreme, and they have the highest average monthly temperature on Earth . Rainfall is sporadic; precipitation may not be observed at all in a few years.
Many deserts, such as the Sahara, are hot year-round, but others, such as East Asia's Gobi Desert, become quite cold during the winter. [1] Temperature extremes are a characteristic of most deserts. High daytime temperatures give way to cold nights because there is no insulation provided by humidity and cloud cover. The diversity of climatic ...