Trying to do a Fantasy Map for novel. Need help!

[epicfreak]

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.

[Supine]

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.

[Man in the Funny Hat]

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.

Desert is defined, after all, not by temperature but by lack of precipitation.

[rdanhenry]

Desert is defined, after all, not by temperature but by lack of precipitation.

Which ensures that even "hot deserts" tend to get cold at night, since water retains heat so much better than just about everything else. Deserts are therefore generally areas of temperature extremes.