In 2019, national news outlets ran video clips of melting street signs and cookies baking to perfection atop Phoenix residents' car dashboards. The intense heat rendered some smartphones inoperable and killed off cacti that typically survive desert conditions. Worries about climate change have people wondering just how hot life will get in the coming decades, but high temperatures are a regular occurrence in several areas of the world. Deserts are known for their extreme climates, both hot and cold.
Grab a sweat rag because even the thoughts of these searing desert landscapes are enough to generate some perspiration.
8 Taklamakan - China
Home to the Flaming Mountains, the Taklamakan Desert is known as "The Sea of Death." People also believe its name originated from an ominous saying that goes something along the lines of, "you can get in, but you can't get out." The 130,000 square mile desert in Northwest China reaches temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit during the summer, with little opportunity for shaded relief.
However, near the Flaming Mountains, radiation from the rocks causes consistent temperatures of 122 degrees or more in the summer months. Many brave visitors head to the Flaming Mountains even during its hot streaks, taking camel rides through the area and purchasing hard-boiled eggs cooked in the scorching sand.
7 Arabian - Saudi Arabia
The Arabian Desert stretches over 700,000 miles across seven countries. It's common for nightly low temperatures in the 30s to climb to over 130 degrees during the summer, fueled in part by monsoons. In 2015, residents in Banda Mahshahr, Iran, experienced an incapacitating week-long hot spell caused by the desert's hot air front with a recorded heat index of 164 degrees!
The Umm al Samim quicksand area is located in the Arabian Desert near Yemen, adding another treacherous element to the unforgiving landscape. It might seem impossible, but over 75 species of animals and 250 varieties of plants call the Arabian Desert home.
6 Kalahari - Africa
Animals rule the land in the Kalahari Desert, a 359,075 square mile semi-arid sandy savannah that covers a large portion of Southern Africa. Several national parks in the area work to preserve the wildlife fighting for their lives in the desert climate, including some zoo-goer favorites like giraffes, lions, and elephants. Summer temperatures routinely exceed 110 degrees.
Despite generally dry conditions, the Okavango River runs through the Kalahari and makes its way to the eponymous delta, considered one of Africa's most magnificent ecosystems. Due to the water scarcity in the Kalahari, many countries have utilized river waters irresponsibly, threatening to endanger the fragile biome and the animals who depend on it for survival.
5 Australian Desert
Australia is the second driest continent behind Antarctica, with over 30 percent of the land qualifying as desert. The area is so barren that 85% of Australians live within 35 miles of the coast. Ayers Rock, also known as Uluru, is a giant sandstone formation in the continent's Red Centre. Uluru is over half a billion years old, and its surface temperatures hit a sweltering 114 degrees...in the shade. With temperatures often exceeding 120 degrees, as well as deadly snakes, spiders, bees, and even snails, it's no wonder why the area doesn't draw in droves of eager tourists.
4 Thar - India
Also known as "The Great Indian Desert," Thar stretches over 90,000 miles and forms India's natural border with Pakistan. Summer highs regularly surpass the hundred-degree mark, though the highest recorded temperature exceeded 120 in May of 2019. Against the odds, nearly 17 million people live in the Thar Desert, making it the most populated desert in the entire world.
In the heart of the area, the Rajasthan region produces nearly half of India's wool, garnering the Thar with the title of "richest desert in the world." Fascinatingly, this now dry area may have once been an ocean, as scientists have uncovered several marine fossils that suggest its prehistoric past existed underwater.
3 Lut - Iran
Iran's Lut desert became a UNESCO world heritage site in 2016 for the geological wonders of its large and remarkably ridged dunes caused by consistently high winds. Satellites recorded a land surface temperature of 177 degrees in the Lut Desert in 2021, snagging the title from the Death Valley as the hottest place on Earth. The 20,000 square mile salt desert regularly exceeds 120 degrees and remains primarily uninhabited due to its extreme temperatures and windy conditions.
2 Sahara - Africa
Most people have heard of the Sahara Desert, and that's because it's the biggest hot desert in the world and the third-largest in general. The Sahara blankets over 3.5 million square miles of northern and central Africa. Filmmakers have utilized the impressive dunes to depict desert landscapes in movies, and scientists have uncovered several dinosaur fossils in the region. Though it doesn't get as hot as some other deserts, summer highs hover around 110 degrees, and the highest land surface temperature ever recorded clocked in at a whopping 136 degrees.
1 Mojave - United States
The Mojave Desert, located in California and portions of Utah and Nevada, is one of the most popular tourism deserts in the world. The cooler air in the winter and spring offers a comfortable oasis for people seeking refuge from harsher winter climates. However, summer temperatures are both unbearable and dangerous.
The Mojave once boasted the hottest temperature ever recorded of 134 degrees in 1913 at Death Valley National Park. Today, summer temperatures often surpass 110 degrees. Scientists predict the Mojave, along with the other deserts in the world, will only continue to break heat records in the future.