Description of a "Temperate Desert"


3.5/d20/OGL


This terrain type has always confused me. I'm not sure what type of landscape a "temperate desert" refers to. Certainly, Warm and Cold deserts are easy to imagine, in a variety of forms (at least for Warm; sandy or rocky). But, what about Temperate? Is this refering to a feature analogous to the Great Plains here in America? They lack water. I wouldn't think that's the intent, however, since "bison" are under temperate plains (although I'm more inclined to think of plains as the "generic," cleared/developed lands as much as actual "Plains," such as savannahs and the aforementioned Great ones).

Or is a temperate desert somewhat like the American West, where it can go from blistering hot in the summer to frigid in the winter? Or is a temperate desert just a vast rocky (or even sandy, I suppose) wasteland that doesn't get as hot as places like the Kalahari (sp?)? I'm doing a bit of world building in what free time I have now (thank you, Calculus), and there's I've got a coastal mountain range in a temperate area. It looks like it should have some form of desert behind it, but I'm not sure what such terrain would be like, and I don't want to plop the Sahara down where it doesn't belong.


Basically when you think temperate you should think America. Temperate means that it rarely hits the high or low extremes. We have deserts yes, but nothing like the dererts of Africa or the Arabian Penninsula. A temperate forest is like most of the woodland areas in the US. Not too hot and humid, but doesn't get too cold either. Good mixture of deciduous and coniferous trees. Hope this helps.

A bit from my Hoarde


I'd still be inclined to call the Desert Southwest as "warm desert," but then again, I haven't spent much time at all in the West, so that may just be a misperception. Certainly, the more northern/intermediate regions fluxuate wildly. That does clear things up quite a bit. Thanks!

Scarab Sages

I grew up in the mojave desert (the great southwestern desert of the US).

It is indeed a temperate desert.

Look at it this way: Antarctica is a "COLD DESERT" in the strictest sense: it is always cold and has very little precipitation!

A "Warm Desert" is obviously a place like the Sahara Desert: Always warm and very little precipitation.

Temperate deserts have very little precipitation (the definition of a desert) but can be cold to hot. Las Vegas is pretty darn cold in January, dropping well below freezing at night. While the summer is unbearable, with temps pushing 120F quite often. Even in the Spring and fall, these temperature extremes are evident with Hot days and Cold nights!

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Saern wrote:
I'd still be inclined to call the Desert Southwest as "warm desert," but then again, I haven't spent much time at all in the West, so that may just be a misperception. Certainly, the more northern/intermediate regions fluxuate wildly. That does clear things up quite a bit. Thanks!

As a resident of Arizona, while the desert around here can certainly be hot during the summer (it reached 130 degrees this year, I believe), the winters are actually rather chilly (lows in the mid-30s at night). I'd call that 'temperate.'

Unlike, say, the Sahara, which is pretty much brutally hot all the time.


I spent a year in Iraq (and am about to head back for another stint) and while it did get VERY hot (I want to say that at one point the thermometer read close to 160), it never got even close to freezing. There were cold spells, but of course after heat like that 70 felt cold. The coldest it got was in January when the rainy season came. It probably dropped to the 40s and 50s.

Sovereign Court

If you're looking for deserts that are more temperate than the American southwest, you can look at eastern Oregon and Washington. East of the Cascade mountains, both states are deserts (since the rainfall tends to hit the mountains and not go over).

It can get hot, but temperatures tend towards the 80's to 110's during the summer, and temperatures do drop well below freezing in winter, but not punishingly so. You get a lot of scrub trees, and because of the vulcanism that used to be in the area, some interesting hills and mountain formations.

Basalt plains are also neat.


I think this may help clarify the definition.
It seems that the Temperate deserts have little to do with heat, and more to do with the fact that the weather systems have the percipitation wrung out of them by the time they reach the temperate desert.
On an almost-related issue, could someone take a look at my Al Quadim d20 thread?

Scarab Sages

After flying from California to Colorado, I would say that Utah is a "temperate desert". (Maybe with some mountains thrown in.) A lot of Colorado would also be considered a "temperate desert".


Sean Achterman wrote:

If you're looking for deserts that are more temperate than the American southwest, you can look at eastern Oregon and Washington. East of the Cascade mountains, both states are deserts (since the rainfall tends to hit the mountains and not go over).

It can get hot, but temperatures tend towards the 80's to 110's during the summer, and temperatures do drop well below freezing in winter, but not punishingly so. You get a lot of scrub trees, and because of the vulcanism that used to be in the area, some interesting hills and mountain formations.

What Sean said. Anything east of the Cascades = temperate desert.

Sovereign Court

Lilith wrote:


What Sean said. Anything east of the Cascades = temperate desert.

...A fellow Pacific Northwesterner?

There's good skiing around there too. And hiking. It's a nice place, and a two hour car trip takes you from temperate rainforest to temperate desert. Very striking change, and you get to do the mountain thing as well.

Liberty's Edge

All deserts have wide temperature variations. Lacking atmospheric moisture, the air warms quickly during the day and cools quickly at night.

The usual definition of "desert" is less than 10" of rain per year. The American West is a good place to find temperate deserts -- in addition to those that have been mentioned, the Great Divide Basin in Wyoming and the desert above the Mogollon Rim (Winslow, Painted Desert, Meteor Crater) in Arizona are temperate.

They trend to very short and sparse grasses and weeds, sagebrush and similar small and woody bushes, and scrub trees only along water courses. Oh, and most of the ground is bare dirt and exposed rocks. The water courses are often dry and sandy, but prone to flash flooding. Dry thunderstorms are common and the wind is incessant. As in other deserts, open sand is very uncommon.

Most fauna is small -- rodents and predators that live on rodents like snakes, coyotes, and hawks. Antelope (and similar animals on other continents) are also pretty common.

Summer highs run from the 70s to the low 100s (warmer in the Mojave, which is borderline hot desert). Summer lows run from the low 40s to the 60s. Winter highs range from -20 or so to the low 50s. Winter lows range from -60 to the mid teens. (All temperatures in degrees Fahrenheit.)

Clear air, wind, scrub, rocks, dust, and blowing snow (all depending on the season, of course) are probably the most memorable things. It's pretty common to be able to see 100 or more miles if there's anything tall enough to see above the curve of the planet at that distance. As an example, from Denver, I can usually see Pike's Peak 75 miles to the south, and Denver and CS are semi-arid, not arid.

Hope that helps.


Doug's post is spot-on.
Nice one.


Wow! Great info. I thought this thread was done after the first reply. Thanks for the education, though.

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