Rain is a factor caused by wind patterns and temperatures. In many deserts, the rain is dropped on mountains nearby, eliminating the moisture from the air before it gets to the desert area. With little moisture in the area, vegetation doesn't grow, and what does works hard to retain the moisture within the plants. The soil also does not absorb the water that does come down and it runs off and away to places were the soil is more absorbant.
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Tropical deserts experience high temperatures and low humidity, which inhibit cloud formation. Warm air in these regions can hold more moisture, leading to less condensation and therefore fewer clouds. Additionally, the sinking air associated with high-pressure systems in these areas also hinders cloud development.
Clouds do 'precipitate' in the deserts. Sometimes, however, the air is so dry that the raindrops evaporate before they hit the ground (virga). However, overall the amount of rain in deserts is low compared to most other biomes because of the geography of the desert.
There's clouds in the desert, have you ever heard of a "Rain Shadow"?
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Deserts have very low humidity from which clouds could form. High pressure in the atmosphere suppresses the building of clouds.
Clouds are formed by water. In a desert there is little water. Therefore there are little clouds in a desert.
Clouds do not precipitate in deserts primarily due to low humidity. Deserts have very dry air with low moisture content, which limits the formation of rain clouds. The low humidity prevents sufficient condensation of water vapor in the atmosphere to form clouds that can produce precipitation.
Plants found in tropical deserts include cacti, succulents, shrubs, and grasses that are adapted to survive in hot and arid conditions. Examples include barrel cacti, agave plants, acacia trees, and thorn bushes. These plants have features such as water-storing tissues, reduced leaves, and deep root systems to help them thrive in the extreme desert environment.
The highest clouds are polar mesospheric clouds, which, at heights from 76,000 to 85,000 m (altitude) are much higher than other types of clouds, such as cirrus and cumulonimbus. Cumulonimbus can exceptionally reach 23,000 m at the very top of a peaked formation, but these clouds normally form mainly within the 2,000 to 16,000 m range. Cirrus clouds, at a maximum height of about 18,000 m in tropical zones, are also much lower than polar mesosphericclouds.
Clouds that form very near the ground are called fog. Fog consists of suspended water droplets or ice crystals that reduce visibility and can form when moist air comes into contact with a cooler surface.
Clouds form with ice crystals instead of liquid water droplets when the temperature is below freezing in the atmosphere. Ice crystals can also form in clouds that are very high up in the atmosphere where temperatures are colder.