Y'know, I see what you mean by the size of the deserts. When you look at
the Earth's Koppen map the only truly immense desert is the Sahara/Middle East. At a guess, it's large because:
1. The latitude is perfect, with a cold west-coast current that limits evaporation.
2. North Africa is a large and (mostly) unbroken land mass, creating rainshadow-like effects.
3. There are no high mountain ranges to act as climatologic speed-bumps, until you hit the Himalayas
Western Australia is another larger example (also no mountains 'till the east coast) but the rest tend to be small in extent. I suspect that this is because they are on land masses that aren't very large east-west, so sea effects mitigate. And in western North America the desert latitudes are smack in the middle of a west-coast mountain range, to boot. (That desert in northwest Sirden might be a good analogue of that- all broken up with mountains- though I'm not sure what effect that warm east-coast current will have.) Even southern Africa is basically one large highland plateau.
My mind boggles at trying to wrap itself around all of this. I've had best luck just looking for Earth analogues to terrain/latitudes/altitudes on
my fantasy map, and trying to make them look similar. But it looks like I might have to go tone down my deserts, too, now.
So, I'll throw up my hands, and go babble in the corner for a bit...
Originally Posted by acrsome
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