What Is A Desert?

Background Information

Most people imagine a desert as a waterless, very hot, windy place with a few signs of life.  Well, some deserts are just like that but others are quite different.  There are deserts that get no rain at all and others where it may rain ten times a year.  Most deserts of the world have high daytime temperatures, but some are in fact cold deserts. The harsh appearance of a desert is quite misleading.  One tends to think that nothing could live on such an environment, when in fact, there is an amazing variety of wildlife and plants that have evolved adaptations that enable them to survive there.  Even more amazing is the number of humans who live in arid areas:  one out of every seven people on Earth!

All deserts have two characteristics that define them:

•     less than 10 inches of rainfall a year, and

•     a very high evaporation rate

Desert rain doesn't fall a little at a time.  Deserts don't have a rainy season.  Rains are unpredictable.  When rain does arrive, it is often in short torrential bursts that evaporate before soaking into the ground.

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