Driest Places On Earth

[Ptarmigan]

The driest place on Earth is the Atacama Desert in Chile. It is a coastal desert by the Pacific. It is dry because of the cold water of the Humboldt Current, which creates a cool inversion. Also, the Andes Mountains to the east, blocks moisture from the Amazon. Some places in the Atacama Desert see no rain for centuries! The Atacama Desert is not really that hot and it is actually quite pleasant and mild.

Antarctica is interesting one. It holds the world's freshwater in ice caps. Yet, it is also one of the driest places in the world. One area, Dry Valleys, has not seen rain for 2 million years! Yes, 2 million years! Also, it is very cold. The reason it is so dry is because of the katabatic winds, which pulls down cold and dense air, which sucks the air dry at the same time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atacama_Desert

http://www.universetoday.com/guide-to-s ... -on-earth/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMurdo_Dry_Valleys

[TexasMetBlake]

Yeah, I wanna say the last recorded rainfall in the Atacama Desert was back in the mid 1600s. But don't hold me to that. I know it has been dry there for over 400 years.

[wxdata]

Most of the desert scenes from the last Jame Bond move "Quantum of Solace" were shot in the Atacama Desert.

http://blog.luxuryproperty.com/atacama-chile/

[sleetstorm]

I learned, from what I read about the Sahara Desert on Wikipedia, that it receives less than over three quarters of an inch of rain annually and nearly four inches of rain annually. It is very rare for the Sahara Desert to get rain. Also, the only time that the Sahara Desert ever received any snow was on February the eighteenth back in 1979. The snowstorm only lasted for thirty minutes and all the snow was melted within hours.