Is it too cold to live in a cold desert?

Answer 1

There are many cold deserts, the largest being the Antarctic.

It is far too cold to live out there. Even research stations are not built in the heart of the Antarctic, and no animals actually live there (penguins are found only on the coastal edges). The Antarctic is the world's largest desert, since a desert is defined as an area receiving less than 250 mm or 10 inches of precipitation per year. The Antarctic desert covers 13.9 million square kilometres.

Another large desert that is not hot is the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan. It lies between the Caspian Sea and the Amu Darya, and covers an area of about 310,800 sq km. The Gobi Desert, which stretches across 1.3 million sq km in China and Mongolia (Asia), is also classified as a cold desert. People do live in these cold deserts.