What Does Desert Mean?

A desert is a region that receives an average annual precipitation of less than 250 mm. This precipitation is very little and more water is lost as compare to precipitation. There are various types of deserts like cold deserts which are covered with snow, and hot deserts where there are extreme conditions. Non-polar deserts are chilly at night and hot in the day. Generally deserts are classified on the basis of geographical location, coastal, monsoon, trade wind, polar deserts and mid-latitude. In a desert there is more sand like 20% of the earth's deserts are covered with sand. Some other features of deserts include mountains, plateau landforms, rock pavements or regs, sand sea or ergs, intermontane basins and badlands.