Why is the tundra called a cold desert?

Answer 1

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There are four main desert biomes: hot and dry deserts, semiarid deserts, coastal deserts, and cold deserts. A cold desert is a desert that has snow in the winter instead of just dropping a few degrees in temperature like they would in a hot and dry desert. It never gets warm enough for plants to grow, allowing for the existence of some types of grasses and some varieties of mosses. The animals in cold deserts also have to burrow into the ground, but in the case to keep warm, not cool. Cold desert temperatures in winter range from -2 to 4° C and in the summer 21 to 26° C. Cold deserts usually have lots of snow. They also have rain in the spring. They average 15-26 cm of rain in a year. This does not include snowfall.

The tundra zone maintains the only type of weather patterns conducive to the standards of a cold desert biome, establishing a unique biome that has everything in common with its three sister biomes, with the exception of the harsh temperature differences. The tundra weather zone is the only zone on the planet conducive to the sustainability of a cold desert biome, thus the name.

Answer 2

The tundra is called a cold desert because it has a similar low amount of precipitation as a desert, but in the form of snow and ice instead of rain. It experiences cold temperatures and has sparse vegetation due to its harsh environmental conditions.