The term desert applies to those regions of the Earth that have the lowest precipitation. You can find deserts divided into four categories: subtropical, cool coastal, cold winter and polar. Subtropical deserts and cool coastal deserts exist in the same latitudes; however, the proximity to cooling bodies of water keeps the temperatures in cool coastal deserts considerably lower than the temperatures of subtropical deserts which are the hottest of the four categories. Cold winter deserts have marked seasons with extreme temperature variations between the seasons. Because nearly all the moisture of polar areas is locked into ice, these regions also qualify as desert areas.
Examples of subtropical deserts include the Gibson, Great Sandy and Great Victoria in Australia. In North America, you will find the Chihahuan, Sonoran, and Mojave subtropical deserts. Examples in other parts of the world include the Kalahari in Botswana, South Africa and Namibia; the Arabian in Saudi Arabia and such neighboring countries as Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates; and the Sahara that includes parts of Morroco, Libya, Egypt and Somalia, among other countries. Cool coastal deserts include the Atacama in Chile and the Namib that incorporates parts of South Africa, Angola and Namibia. Cold winter deserts include the Patagonian desert in Argentina, the Great Basin in Utah, Oregon and Nevada; and the Colorado Plateau encompassing portions of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Wyoming. Polar desert regions include the Artic and Antarctic regions.
Semi-arid regions fall into two basic categories: steppes and dry grasslands. Steppes fall into two categories: the subtropical steppe and the cold steppe also known as the temperate steppe. You can also find unusual types of steppes such as the alpine steppe and the shrub step. Climatologists regard the temperate or cold steppe as the true steppe; and such temperate steppes occur in various locations around the world. Grasslands also fall into two categories: tropical savanna and temperate grassland. Climatologists identify some forms of temperate grasslands as a prairie.
Examples include the Anatolia in Turkey, the Pannonian Plain in Southeastern Europe and parts of Anatolia in Turkey. The largest cold steppe, The Great Steppe, incorporates parts of Russia and of several neighboring countries in central Asia. In Europe, subtropical may have association with a Mediterranean climate in locations such as Greece, Sicily and central and eastern Spain. In North America, you will find the subtropical steppe climate represented by Reno, Nevada and parts of California.
You will find steppe grasslands occurring only in Northern Eurasia, Eastern Europe and Western North America. Prairie grasslands occur in closer proximity to river valleys, wetlands and other areas with higher moisture levels. Prairie grasslands go under different names in different parts of the world such as pampas in South America and veldt in South Africa.