Did you know that the Negev Desert is a part of the world desert strip
But How Did the Negev Become a Desert?
So as I am sure you know already, the Negev covers most of Israel, about 60%. But how did the Negev become a desert? First, it is all got to do with the subtropical highs; also known as the Horse Latitudes. Deserts on Earth exists at between 30-35 degrees latitude because of warm air, calm winds, and constant area of high pressure forming in the atmosphere above. So like the Negev, these deserts experience dry and hot conditions year-round and see plenty of sunlight, little wind, and very little precipitation.
The Negev A World Desert Strip: Let’s Found Out Some More!
The Earth’s weather is a consequence of its illumination by the Sun and the laws of thermodynamics. The atmospheric circulation can be viewed as a heat engine driven by the sun’s energy; and whose energy sink, ultimately, is the blackness of space. The work produced by that engine causes the motion of the masses of air and in that process, it redistributes the energy absorbed by the Earth’s surface near the tropics to the latitudes nearer the poles, and thence to space.
So the Negev being part of the World Desert Stripall got to do with the global air circulation. The driving force of atmospheric circulation is the uneven distribution of solar heating across the Earth, which is greatest near the equator and least at the poles. Near the equator, the air masses converge and rise; developing a band of thunderstorms that produces high-precipitation.
Having lost most of its water vapor to condensation and precipitation in the upward movement, the descending air is dry. As the air descends, it produces warm, dry and sunny conditions in latitudes 30-35 which are the main cause for the existence of the world’s major non-polar deserts such as the Negev.