Why are some deserts so cold at night?
Usually deserts have cloudless skies. This allows the sun’s rays to heat up the land during the day, making the temperature extremely hot. But as the sun sets, if there is no cloud cover to keep the heat in, it radiates into the atmosphere. Of course, this is only applicable to hot deserts. The difference between the hottest and coldest parts of the day can be quite distinct. Some people call nighttime ‘the Winter of the desert’. Why are the physical characteristics of a desert? These vary greatly. Deserts come in many forms, from claypan deserts which are dry and cracked, to sandy deserts which are full of dunes. Other types of deserts include mountain deserts (any water runs down the steep sides of a mountain, eroding and creating deep gorges), stony deserts (covered with small pebbles and rock) and shield deserts (a mixture of sand and gravel, often with an underlying granite base). There are many interesting landforms to be found in deserts. They include: • Gibber Plains – These fo
