Why do many rivers in the Gobi Desert flow only during summer?

Many rivers in the Gobi Desert flow only during the summer primarily because the region experiences monsoonlike conditions in its eastern areas, which receive the majority of their annual precipitation during the summer months.1

Additionally, the desert's drainage is largely underground, and surface rivers generally lack a constant flow. In dry regions, many temporary rivers are fed by the melting of snow and glaciers in the surrounding mountains, causing them to reach their peak water levels during the summer. Rivers that do not receive this mountain runoff often have very little water and may dry up completely, as the desert's extreme aridity and high evaporation rates quickly deplete surface water, causing streams to disappear into loose soil or enclosed depressions.23