It is located north of the Caspian Sea and southeast of the Volga Upland.

Many small towns are scattered throughout the Ryn Desert, and population density is between 1 and 15 people per square mile.

[1] The desert lies in a semi-arid climate zone, and receives very little rainfall.

[citation needed] Temperatures can reach extreme highs of 45 to 48 °C (113 to 118 °F) during summer and in winter they can drop to a low of −28 to −36 °C (−18 to −33 °F).

A study of long-range dust transportation to the Baltic Sea region—by analyzing dust pollution in Scandinavia, showed that aerosol concentrations there were influenced more by the Ryn Desert region than the Sahara Desert in Africa.