If it rained heavily in the desert, would there be floods?

Yes. It does not even need to rain all that hard. A quick half an inch on solid rock and you get a thundering flash flood raging down the nearest canyon. You get those frequently up in the Painted Desert of southern Utah, or Slickrock Desert as it is also going by. read more

There are many of them. Even Antarctica is one. It would depend on soil composition and the topography of the desert you want it to rain heavily on. Sandy deserts with highly eroded soil would most likely absorve rainfall, and form ponds if rainfall is constant, as it occurs in Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, Brazil. read more

Without nitrogen plants fail to grow, then die. The desert’s full of nitrogen, of course: most of the air in the desert, like anywhere else on the planet, consist of pure nitrogen — N 2. And since there’s a lot of that air in the desert soil, then there’s lots of soil nitrogen. read more