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The Daily Insight

What is the highest and lowest temperature in the desert?

Author

Robert Guerrero

Updated on May 02, 2026

Desert surfaces receive a little more than twice the solar radiation received by humid regions and lose almost twice as much heat at night. Many mean annual temperatures range from 20-25 degrees Celsius. The extreme maximum ranges from 43.5-49 degrees Celsius. Minimum temperatures sometimes drop to -18 degrees Celsius.

Likewise, what is the lowest temperature desert?

The Antarctic Ice Sheet has also experienced the coldest recorded temperature of all time: -89.2°C (-128.6°F), logged at Russia's Vostok research station on 21 July 1983.

Likewise, what is the highest and lowest temperature in the Sahara desert? Temperatures in the Sahara can plummet once the sun sets, from an average high of 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) during the day to an average low of 25 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 4 degrees Celsius) during the night, according to NASA.

Beside above, what is the highest temperature in desert?

This includes the record of 56.7 °C (134.1 °F) in Death Valley, which is currently considered the highest temperature recorded on Earth. Some desert locations consistently experience very high temperatures all year long, even during wintertime.

What is the lowest temperature of the Sahara desert?

For example, absolute lows of 5 °F (−15 °C) have been recorded in the Tibesti Mountains. Late spring and early summer are hot; high temperatures of 122 °F (50 °C) are not unusual.

Related Question Answers

Where is the hottest desert on Earth?

Seven years of satellite temperature data show that the Lut Desert in Iran is the hottest spot on Earth. The Lut Desert was hottest during 5 of the 7 years, and had the highest temperature overall: 70.7°C (159.3°F) in 2005.

What is the coldest desert on Earth?

The largest desert on Earth is Antarctica, which covers 14.2 million square kilometers (5.5 million square miles). It is also the coldest desert on Earth, even colder than the planet's other polar desert, the Arctic. Composed of mostly ice flats, Antarctica has reached temperatures as low as -89°C (-128.2°F).

Can the desert get cold?

Although some deserts are very hot, with daytime temperatures as high as 54°C (130°F), other deserts have cold winters or are cold year-round.

Can you freeze to death in the desert?

Cooling from poor insulation or evaporation (such as wet clothes drying on your skin) can inhibit your body's ability to regulate its temperature causing it to drop rapidly. This in turn slows down the chemical reactions that keep you alive until you plunge into a coma that could lead to death.

Are all deserts cold at night?

Deserts are extremely dry places with almost no humidity, so the heat can't be retained during the night. Not all deserts get cold during the night. The air in dry areas cools off when there are no clouds covering the area, when there is no wind or, naturally, when there is almost no moisture in the air.

What is the coldest place on Earth?

Oymyakon is the coldest permanently-inhabited place on Earth and is found in the Arctic Circle's Northern Pole of Cold.

What's the hottest thing on Earth?

Lava is the hottest natural thing on Earth. It comes from the Earth's mantle or crust. The layer closer to the surface is mostly liquid, spiking to an astounding 12,000 degrees and occasionally seeping out to create lava flows.

What is the hottest temp on Earth?

Official world record remains 134°F at Furnace Creek in 1913

In 2013, WMO officially decertified the official all-time hottest temperature in world history, a 136.4 degrees Fahrenheit (58.0°C) reading from Al Azizia, Libya, in 1923. (Burt was a member of the WMO team that made the determination.)

What is the hottest town on Earth?

Dallol, Ethiopia

Extremely remote and set in the far north of Ethiopia, Dallol is a tiny village known for setting records. It's the hottest year-round spot in the world, with the average annual high temperature coming in at a blistering 106.1 degrees F.

What is the hottest state?

Florida

Do people live in Death Valley?

More than 300 people live year-round in Death Valley, one of the hottest places on Earth. With average daytime temperatures of nearly 120 degrees in August, Death Valley is one of the hottest regions in the world.

Where is the hottest country in the world?

Burkina Faso

Why is Lytton BC so hot?

During summer heat waves, Lytton is often the hottest spot in Canada, despite being north of 50°N in latitude. Due to the dry summer air and a relatively low elevation of 230 m (750 ft), summer afternoon shade temperatures frequently reach 35 °C (95 °F) and occasionally top 40 °C (104 °F).

How cold is the Sahara at night?

That's because temperatures in the Sahara can plummet once the sun sets, from an average high of 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) during the day to an average low of 25 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 4 degrees Celsius) during the night, according to NASA.

How hot is the Sahara?

The Sahara Desert is one of the driest and hottest regions of the world, with a mean temperature sometimes over 30 °C (86 °F) and the average high temperatures in summer are over 40 °C (104 °F) for months at a time, and can even soar to 47 °C (117 °F).

Is Sahara Desert the hottest place on earth?

Death Valley is in the northern Mojave Desert and holds the highest recorded temperature of 56.7C. The coldest temperature recorded there is -10C on January 10, 1913. The Sahara annual average temperature is 30C but can regularly exceed 40C in the hottest months.

Does it ever rain in the Sahara?

Annual rainfall in the Sahara now ranges from about 4 inches to less than 1 inch (100 to 35 mm). Although other research had already identified the existence of the Green Sahara period, Tierney and her colleagues are the first to compile a continuous record of the region's rainfall going 25,000 years into the past.

What 3 animals live in the Sahara?

The animals include, for a few examples, Barbary sheep, oryx, anubis baboon, spotted hyena, dama gazelle, common jackal and sand fox; the birds--ostriches, secretary birds, Nubian bustards and various raptors; the reptiles--cobras, chameleons, skinks, various lizards and (where there is sufficient water) crocodiles;

Is Sahara Desert cold at night?

That's because temperatures in the Sahara can plummet once the sun sets, from an average high of 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) during the day to an average low of 25 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 4 degrees Celsius) during the night, according to NASA.

How hot is the Sahara desert at night?

That's because temperatures in the Sahara can plummet once the sun sets, from an average high of 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) during the day to an average low of 25 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 4 degrees Celsius) during the night, according to NASA.

Why is Death Valley so hot?

The biggest factor behind Death Valley's extreme heat is its elevation. Parts of it are below sea level, even though the area is 250 miles (400 kilometers) inland from any major body of water. Also, a major set of mountains (the Sierra Nevada) block moisture from the Pacific from reaching the basin.

What is the coldest it has ever been in the Sahara Desert?

Based on how much temperatures fall with elevation, the lowest temperatures on top of the mountain may reach down to -36°F to -52°F (-33°C to -62°C). So the coldest it has ever gotten in the Sahara (if you consider parts of the atlas to be in the Sahara) is as much as -36 to -52°F (-33°C to -62°C).

Did it snow in the Sahara Desert?

The Sahara desert, which covers most of Northern Africa, has gone through shifts in temperature over the past few hundred thousand years - but snow and ice are still very rare. The town in the Naama province has experienced snow only three other times in 42 years - in 1979, 2017 and 2018.

Why is the Sahara so hot?

The high position of the Sun, the extremely low relative humidity, and the lack of vegetation and rainfall make the Great Desert the hottest large region in the world, and the hottest place on Earth during summer in some spots.