The Desert Biome is one of the most interesting biomes on the planet. An area of ​​land is considered desert when it produces less than 10 inches of precipitation throughout the year. There are many types of deserts around the world, with a very diverse group of plants and animals. Temperatures there are generally warm during the day and cold at night. A desert is a region that is so arid due to little precipitation that it supports only sparse, widely spaced vegetation, or no vegetation at all. There are many types of deserts, including trade wind deserts, mid-latitude deserts, rain shadow deserts, and many others. The largest trade wind desert is the Sahara Desert, located in North Africa. Dry winds use cloud cover to allow more sunlight to warm the earth. The Sahara Desert reached temperatures of 122 degrees Fahrenheit. Mid-latitude deserts have many inland watersheds far from the oceans and have a wide range of annual temperatures. These deserts are more common in North America. Deserts cover about a fifth of the Earth's surface. In addition, deserts are found on all continents. Deserts are part of a broader classification of regions called drylands. They are found all over the world along two fingers parallel to the equator, at a latitude of 25 to 35 degrees in the northern and southern hemispheres. Deserts are made up of bare soil and low vegetation. Deserts make up about one-fifth of Earth's land surface, or about 20.9 million square kilometers (“Basic Facts About Deserts”). The hot, dry climate of deserts has three reasons. These come from Hadley cells, rain shadows and ocean currents. First, Hadley cells are air pockets named after the British meteorologist who discovered them. In Hadley cel...... middle of article....... April 1, 2014. scic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ ReferenceDetailsWindow?failOverType=&query=&prodId=SCIC&windowstate=normal&conten tModules=&mode=view&displayGroupName=Reference&limiter=&currPage= &disableHighligh ting=false&displayGroups=&sortBy=&search_within_results=&p=SCIC&action=e&catId=&a ctivityType=&scanId=&documentId=GALE%7CCV2641800004&source=Bookmark&u=lafa43079&j sid=be3c4e8be24cdd655d977ca1d 6adda9d>. Desert animals. The Animal Spot, nd Web. April 1, 2014..Rice, Stanly A. “Deserts, hot. » Encyclopedia of biodiversity. New York: Facts on Record, 2012. 175-82. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Internet. April 1, 2014.i.do?id=GALE%7CCX2022700062&v=2.1&u=lafa43079&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w&asid=ab845b12642ccc6a3a5fd1b4764b9393>.