What causes desert to be so hot

Question

What causes the desert areas to reach tempatures of 100 or more during summer months

Answer 1

There are two reasons in particular. First, the latitudes at which deserts are located is important. The have a lengthy period of daylight along with more direct sunlight. Second, there is the presence of the subtropical high. Due to its presence, there are clear skies, and that allows for more enough sunlight to generate very significant daytime solar heating.

Another thing I'd like to add is the presence of rain shadows in some parts of the world. With mountain barriers, clouds have a hard time making their way into some areas. That will lead to clear skies, and of course strong daytime heating.

Its also possible that many terrains might have low albedo, which suggests there will be even more emission of heat.

I hope this helps.

Answer 2

Deserts usually have high percentages of sand, gravel, or rock, with little vegetation, and low humidity.  The low humidity and sparse vegetation allow much more sunlight to reach the ground.  The ground has very low heat capacity, meaning that absorbing the sunlight drives it to higher temperatures than water or vegetation.  Air also has a low specific heat, so the ground level air heats quickly as well.

Answer 3

Well the truth is a desert doesn't have to be hot! A desert is any area of land that recieves a very low to practically no amount of precipitaiton. Antarcitca is even a desert!

The reason why the typical desert is so hot is that since the land is dry, there is little vegetation, practically no clouds in the sky, no bodies of water and they are chuck full of sand and gravel, there is nothing to really block heat and it absorbs the heat. Sand is great for absorbing heat, since water relfects sunlight, without water, there is nothing to reflect it back, and since there aren't clouds, the sun can shine through. And since most deserts are right near the equator, they get direct sunlight which brings warmer temperatures.

But, like I said, Antarctica is a desert. Its really the amount of precipitation a place gets that determines whether or not it is a desert, so the average air temperatures aren't really a factor.

Answer 4

The lack of water means lack of clouds, and without clouds the sunlight is absorbed into the soil causing the air to become hot, the air then expands. Then the air loses density and rises.

Answer 5

i live in nc in june july and august we have our hottest temps,it can and does exceed 100 degrees f.it's not desert here although we are way behind on rainfall,for the last several years.the desert is not so much hot as it is dry,lack of cloud cover and no ground cover drys and heats the earth,but i bet it's not hotter than here,and there it's dry heat,here we have the humidity to contend with,makes getting cool much harder.......tom