Climate |
The Sahara is the world’s largest hot desert and one of the harshest environments on the planet. The Sahara has one of the world’s most severe climates. Although hot and extremely dry today, it is believed that the Sahara Desert has undergone various climatic shifts for the last few hundred thousand years. For example, during the last glaciation, it was bigger than it is today because precipitation in the area was low.
The Sahara is one of the hottest regions in the world. The average annual temperature for the desert is 86°F (30°C) but during the hottest months temperatures can exceed 122°F (50°C), with the highest temperature ever recorded at 136°F (58°C) in Aziziyah, Libya. In Africa, the Sahara desert is the most hottest area and near by areas are also very hot.
The Sahara desert's climate stays always the same. However, it rains and each month the temperature changes through out the whole month. In December, the Sahara gets most amount of rain. Then in January, the Sahara has the lowest temperature average. Each month the climate stays stil, but the weather changes each month.
The area is located in the horse latitudes under the subtropical ridge, a significant belt of semi-permanent subtropical warm-core high pressure where the air from upper levels of the troposphere tends to sink towards the ground. This steady descending airflow causes a warming and a drying effect in the upper troposphere. The sinking air prevents evaporating water from rising and, therefore, prevents the adiabatic cooling, which makes cloud formation extremely difficult to nearly impossible.