Quote Originally Posted by epicfreak View Post
Look to the Siberia/Mongolia/Gobi Desert (China) area of the world. It starts out with cold forest (Taiga), transitions to rugged steppes, then to blazingly hot desert. The scales are rather large, but it sounds like exactly what you want. A continental climate would model that best, as in the scenario outlined above.
Just as an aside, the Gobi isn't really that hot. It's actually pretty cold most days. Of course, that only matters if you're packing for a vacation there, which is a really awful idea anyway.