Hottest Place In The World

There are many places on earth that are plenty hot - record-breaking hot. In fact, there's a good chance on the day this record-breaking temperature was recorded by a meteorological station in El Azizia in 1922 there were other places hundreds of miles away that were even hotter. In all likelihood, this record temperature has been exceeded since then in many places on earth, but we have no official records of the temperatures. It is important to note that when atmospheric temperatures are recorded it is not the surface temperature, where it can sometimes reach 150° F/ 66° C, but rather the air temperature at about 5 feet (1.6 m) above the surface in an enclosed shelter. Of course, it's important that the temperature sensor is not exposed to direct sunlight - the shelter is louvered to permit air flow across the sensor. Most humans don't 'hang out' where some of the hottest tempertatures on earth are regularly experienced so there aren't a lot of meterological stations in these places to reliably record extreme temperatures.

Desert Lands

As big as the earth is, over two thirds of its surface is covered in water from the oceans. The remaining one-third of the earth's surface is exposed as dry land for us to live on, but a third of that dry land is really dry. In fact, it's inhospitable desert. Much of the deserts in the world are clustered between 5 to 30 degrees north and south of the equator, in what are called subtropical zones . Scientists have theorized that these desert belts are due to two things:

1) Heat

2) Lack of moisture

Duh? Anybody who's ever been outside on a hot summer day, all day, knows that. Just about every continent on earth that is inhabited by humans experiences seasonal weather changes, with a distinct winter and summer. Just because there's hot, dry weather during the summer, doesn't mean that where you live is going to turn into a desert. What makes the desert so hot and dry is the climactic conditions that are sustained almost continually, year round. Any part of the world that's hot and dry for long enough periods throughout the year won't be able to support much plant or animal life. Living things need water to survive.