"Orchid XP v8" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message
news:486e614d$1@news.povray.org...
> Gail Shaw wrote:
>
> > Actually, if you look at the climate of the places on the equator, it's
more
> > like tropical forest. Hot and humid all year round. The deserts tend to
be a
> > little further away.
>
> Really? How counterintuitive...

Has to do with weather patterns. At the equator, the air is rising (because
of the heat). Hot air rising cools, forms clouds and causes rain.
About 15 degrees further north/south, the air is decending (find a good
climatology website/book for the reasons). Decending air warms up and does
not allow water to condence and fall. Hence, deserts
Very, very simplistic explaination.

Same reason why, if you watch a weather report, low pressure cells (rising
air) are associated with wet weather and high pressure cells (decending air)
are associated with dry weather

> > The Sahara lies mostly between the 15 degrees N and 30 degrees N
latitudes.
> > The Namib desert lies mostly around the 20-28 degrees S latitudes
>
> See, now I didn't even know the Namib was *in* Africa. (But then, until
> yesterday I didn't know where the Gobi was either...)

Um, yup, the Namib desert is mostly in a country called Namibia.

> Mmm, OK. Africa is clearly significantly larger than I thought. ;-)
>

OK. when is your birthday and can you email me a shipping address for you?
I'm buying you a good atlas for your birthday/christmas

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