Does It Snow in the Desert?沙漠地區會下雪嗎?

A desert is very dry. Many people think that deserts must be hot and dry. They are only half right. It is true that the world’s deserts are always dry. It is not true that all of them are always hot.

In hot parts of the world， the deserts are hot all year round. But even these hot deserts cool down at night.

沙漠地區非常干燥。許多人認為沙漠地區的天氣一定是炎熱而且干燥的。他們只對了一半。的確，世界上的沙漠地區總是干燥的，但并不是所有的沙漠地區都是炎熱的。

在世界上炎熱的地區，沙漠地區一年四季都很炎熱。但即使是這些炎熱的沙漠地區在晚上也會降溫。

In cooler parts of the world， the deserts are cold at night. They are also cold in winter. Many frozen places in the world are deserts. The ice cap of Greenland， for example， is an ice desert.

All deserts， hot or cold， get some rain. It may last only a few minutes. It may come only" once a year. Sometimes this rain falls on a cold desert in winter. When that happens， cold air changes the rain to snow. In fact， cold deserts high in the mountains often get snowstorms. So the answer is yes： it can and does snow in some deserts.

在世界上較冷的地區，沙漠地區的夜晚很冷。在這些沙漠地區，冬天也很寒冷。世界上許多冰凍的地方是沙漠。例如，格陵蘭冰蓋是一個冰沙漠區域。

所有的沙漠地區，無論天氣炎熱還是寒冷，都會下雨。降雨可能只持續幾分鐘，也可能一年只有一次。冬天，有時雨水會降在寒冷的沙漠。當這種情況發生時，冷空氣將雨水變成雪。事實上，高山上寒冷的沙漠地區經常有暴風雪。所以答案是肯定的：一些沙漠地區確實會下雪。

Word Bank

desert n. 沙漠

frozen adj. 冰封的；封凍的

happen v. 發生，出現

snowstorm n. 暴風雪