A desert is a dry place that gets very little rain. Death Valley is dry because it sits in the rain shadow of mountains. A rain shadow desert forms on the far side of a mountain range, where the air has already lost its moisture. The hottest air temperature ever recorded in Death Valley was 134 degrees Fahrenheit, or 57 degrees Celsius. As of November 2026, that record was set on July 10, 1913. In the desert heat, drink plenty of water and stay in the shade during the hottest part of the day.

Saguaro cactuses grow in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona and Mexico. A saguaro is mostly water. Inside a saguaro, a skeleton of woody ribs holds up the plant and all the water it stores. Its skin is pleated like an accordion, so it can expand to hold water after rain. The saguaro's sweet fruits ripen in the hottest, driest time of year, just before the summer rains.

A kangaroo rat does not need to drink. It gets its water from the seeds it eats. It also saves water in another way. Kangaroo rats get rid of waste with very little water: their kidneys and droppings are built to waste almost none.

The thorny devil, a spiky lizard of Australia, collects water with grooves in its skin that lead to its mouth. A camel can lose a lot more of its body water than most mammals and still survive. You may have heard that a camel stores water in its hump. In fact, a camel's hump is made of fat, not water.

A fennec fox has very big ears. Its big ears help it hear prey under the sand and give off body heat. Many desert animals sleep in the heat of the day and come out at night, when it is cooler. After a big rain, flowers can bloom in the desert.

Words to know

• moisture: wetness
• kidneys: waste filters
• ribs: long supports
• grooves: narrow channels