Every part of the Southwest experienced higher average temperatures between 2000 and 2020 than the long-term average (1895-2020). Convective mixing forces the moisture in warm air to condense as it comes into contact with cool air, forming vapor (clouds) and precipitation (for example, rain or hail). In general, places in the east and south of the UK tend to be drier, warmer, sunnier and less windy than those further west and north. For extended periods from 2002 to 2005 and from 2012 to2020, nearly the entire region was abnormally dry or even drier (see Figure 2). Cattle ranches throughout the southwestern states rely on rain-fed grazing forage, making them extremely susceptible to climate change and drought. Left photoandright photoby NPS/Michael Quinn (Grand Canyon National Park via flickr,Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license, images cropped and resized). Like the summer monsoons, the milder storms . Recent warming within the Southwest has been among the most rapid in the United States, and models predict that the area's climate will continue to warm. Extreme high temperatures. Summer heat waves will become hotter and longer, while winter cold snaps will occur less often. Colorado has a generally cool and continental climate with low humidity. PRI is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The Drought Monitor is a more recent and more detailed index based on several other indices (including Palmer), along with additional factors such as snow water content, groundwater levels, reservoir storage, pasture/range conditions, and other impacts. In the late Eocene, the Earth began to cool, and global temperatures fell sharply at the boundary between the Eocene and Oligocene epochs (approximately 35 million years ago), due in part to the separation of South Americas southern tip from Antarctica. At the very end of the Cretaceous, the Gulf Coast experienced an enormous disruption when a large asteroid or bolide collided with Earth in what is now the northern Yucatn Peninsula in Mexico. Although there has been a fair amount of research into the monsoon, there are still far more questions than answers about how it works, and if the seasonal amount of rain, potential start date, or other characteristics can be predicted. Seems likely that conditions in the GM may influence annual variations in the monsoon. 1. Higher elevations (such as those found in the Rockies and on the Colorado Plateau) are also cooler, with approximately a 1.5C (3F) decrease in mean annual temperature for each 300-meter (1000-foot) increase in elevation. The formation of precipitation also causes electrical charging of particles in the atmosphere, which in turn produces lightning. The Wave, a series of intersecting U-shaped troughs eroded into Jurassic NavajoSandstone within the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, Arizona. Volcanic activity was strong. There were spots that received large amounts of rain, but overall Nora was a bust. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. The elevation of Bear Lake is about 2880 meters (9450 feet). It's made up of the states of Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. Data for Figure 2 were provided by the National Drought Mitigation Center. Frequent showers and thunderstorms continue well into the summer. Shiprock, a volcanic monadnock in San Juan County, New Mexico, rises roughly 483 meters (1583 feet) above the desert plain. Climate.gov image of original from Albuquerque, NM National Weather Service office. Copyright 2021 Paleontological Research Institution. Large portions of the Southwest have experienced drought conditions since weekly Drought Monitor records began in 2000. Photo by Kenneth Carpenter (Wikimedia Commons,Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license, image cropped and resized). Reconstruction created usingPaleomap(by C. Scotese) forGPlates. Indeed, much of this region has low annual rainfall and seasonally high temperatures that contribute to its characteristic desert climate. Likewise, its not yet clear how the monsoon is changing in the warming climate, or how it will in the future. The Southwest has a hot desert climate, at lower elevations. The thunderstorm begins. Reconstruction created using basemap from thePALEOMAP PaleoAtlas for GPlatesand the PaleoData Plotter Program, PALEOMAP Project by C. R. Scotese (2016); map annotations by Jonathan R. Hendricks & Elizabeth J. Hermsen for PRI's[emailprotected]project (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0license). Earth 150 million years ago, near the end of the Jurassic Period. Ideas and explanations found in these posts should be attributed to the ENSO blog team, and not to NOAA (the agency) itself. Ive summarized their conclusions above, and include the quotes here, but I suggest you head over to the full science report if youre in the mood for some specifics. Later in the Jurassic, the climate became more moderate; dune fields were replaced by rivers and floodplains populated by a rich dinosaur fauna (exemplified by the Morrison Formation) and large trees along rivers, streams, and grasslands. Because warm air can hold more moisture than cool air can, convective mixing with cool air forces moisture to condense out of warm air as vapor (clouds) and precipitation. The daily range between maximum and minimum temperatures sometimes runs as much as 50 to 60 degrees F during the drier periods of the year. Skeleton of a juvenileCamarosaurs lentus, a type of sauropod, from the Carnegie Quarry, Jurassic Morrison Formation, Dinosaur National Monument, Utah and Colorado. Lake Mead, the lake created by the Hoover Dam, at two points in time about 21 years apart. This map shows how the average air temperature from 2000 to 2020has differed from the long-term average (18952020). When you add in the sparse rain-gauge observations available in the U.S. Southwest and Mexico, it becomes even more difficult to make confident statements about the effects of the monsoon and how it can be predicted. The continued growth of Pangaea created an intense monsoonal climate, similar to that of Asia today, that affected large parts of the continent. Download related technical information PDF, https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/DmData/DataTables.aspx, A Closer Look: Temperature and Drought in the Southwest. Also extreme dryness which means days & weeks on end without rain. It smoldered beneath the ground as a dormant holdover, sleeper, or zombie fire until April, when it flared up and grew into a wildfire, an almost unprecedented occurrence in the Southwest. North America and Europe are part of Laurasia, and South America and Africa are part of Gondwana. I listened to the Southwest Climate Podcast from CLIMAS, the Climate Assessment for the Southwest, to learn more about what affects the monsoon and its rainfall, and how Monsoon 2021 is shaping up, and reached out to the podcast co-hosts, Zack Guido and Mike Crimmins, for help with this post. While thats often the situation for the Indian monsoon, the monsoon in North America behaves a bit differently. Shelly sandstones in Utah represent vast tidal flats. Photo credits: 1916 photo from USGS (public domain), 2013 photo by daveynin (flickr,Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license, image resized). Typically, a storm blows itself out once the warm air has moved up and the cool air has moved down. Image fromCretaceous Atlas of Ancient Life: Western Interior Seaway(Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Internationallicense). Figure by climate.gov; data from CPC Unified data. Photo by Dr. David Goodrich, NOAA (NOAA Photo Library ID wea04192, NOAA's National Weather Service, via flickr, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license, image cropped and resized). Cumbres in the San Juan Mountains receives nearly 7.6 meters (300 inches) of snowfall annually, while Manassa, less than 50 kilometers (30 miles) away in the San Luis Valley, receives only about 63 centimeters (25 inches) of snow a year. Famous sheriffs like Wyatt Earp and outlaws like Billy the . Map of the Gulf of Mexico region before the closure of the Isthmus of Panama. By early to mid-September, wind patterns have generally reverted back to the westerly pattern, bringing an end to the monsoon. This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (ARPML-250637-OMLS-22).The views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this website do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. It depends where you are! The intensification recorded since about the 1970s has been partly driven by greenhouse gas emissions (medium confidence). In 8.4, What are the projected water cycle changes?, the summary statement is there is low agreement on a projected decrease of NAmerM precipitation, however there is high confidence in delayed onsets and demises of the summer monsoon.. The Southwest, already the driest region in the United States, has become even drier since the mid-20th century, particularly on the hottest days . PRI's free resource to help you learn about the Earth and its history. The map in Figure 1 shows how average annual temperatures in the Southwest from 2000 to 2020differed from the average over the entire period since widespread temperature records became available (18952020). Soils associated with these floodplains testify to the extreme seasonality of rainfall during that time. Water is already scarce in the Southwest, so every drop is a precious resource. By the end of the Cretaceous, uplift to the west was great enough that the resulting hills shed large amounts of sand and gravel in an easterly direction, pushing the shoreline eastward until sediment (combined with a worldwide drop in sea level) filled the area formerly occupied by the Western Interior Seaway. Tornado Alley is identified. In fact, this monsoon may turn out to be the wettest on record for some places! A crinoid (Ibexocrinus lepton) from the Ordovician Kanosh Shale, Millard County, Utah. Carbon dioxide emissions in Arizona rose through the last three decades of the 20th century and reached a peak in 2008. Changes in atmospheric pressure during the late fall and winter can lead to an accumulation of haze. | View Google Privacy Policy. I did a quick comparison of the average JulyAugust rainfall in the monsoon region with the Nio-3.4 index, using 70 years of records. contiguous U.S. (CONUS) into the Northern Plains. The coldest periods will be in late November, mid- and late December, and mid-January. 2010. See the Drought indicator for more information about these indices. Historic data from Livneh et al. Right:Reconstruction of living animals. Southwestern states are stepping up their use and production of renewable energy. PRI is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. In the late Ordovician (about 460 to 430 million years ago), the Earth fell into another brief but intense ice age. The climate of the eastern plains is fairly uniform, with hot, windy summers and thunderstorms. Is the tropical storm season done for this part of the country? In the Silurian and Devonian (430 to 359 million years ago), North America moved north across the equator, and the cycle of warming and cooling was repeated yet again. The better known of these wet seasons is the summer monsoon, which lasts from about mid-June to early September. Cycads are a group of seed plants that look superficially similar to palms, but are not closely related to them and do not produce flowers. As the continents moved closer to their modern positions, the Southwest experienced a hot and humid tropical climate. As average temperatures rise and the Southwest becomes drier with a longer annual fire season (season conducive to the ignition and spread of wildfires), the number and intensity of wildfires is expected to increase. The North American Monsoon is a seasonal change in the atmospheric circulation that occurs as the summer sun heats the continental land mass. Global temperatures during the Cretaceous were very warm, as much as 10C (18F) above those at present. Declining water supplies, reduced agricultural yields, health impacts in cities due to heat, and flooding and erosion in coastal areas are additional concerns. Much of the Southwest became an archipelago of warm shallow seaways and uplifted islands, with terrestrial swampy forests and shallow sea floors populated by bivalves, brachiopods, arthropods, corals, and fish. There is also an important relationship between rainfall and temperature: usually, more rain leads to cooler conditions, and less rain leads to hotter conditions. Winter is the driest season in New Mexico, because precipitation from eastward-traveling Pacific storms is left behind in the western mountains of Arizona and Utah. Photo by James St. John (flickr, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license, image cropped and resized). What happened that make TS Nora so underwhelming? Agriculture accounts for more than half of the Southwests water use, so any major reduction in the availability of water resources will create a serious strain on ecosystems and populations. Right (2):Crown of leaves from a mature plant. The inset image is a shaded relief image that shows the edge of the crater on the Yucatn Peninsula with sinkholes in the rock surrounding it. Dry air is shown in orange. Digital Encyclopedia of Earth Science: Why talk about climate change? The risk of dangerous wildfires is currently very high in parts of the Southwest. Images by Lauren Dauphin, NASA Earth Observatory (used following NASA's image use policy). The Sonoran Desert is located in southwestern Arizona and adjacent regions of California and Mexico. Photoandreconstructionby National Park Service/NPS (public domain). Photograph by "Cathy" (Flickr;Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical 2.0 Generic license). The Southwest's overall average high temperature of 19.2C (66.6F) and average low of 2.8C (37.0F) are indicative of a varied climate, one much less uniform than that found in many other parts of the United States. The thicker line is a nine-year weighted average. And yet another element of the monsoon system that needs more study to resolve. In New Mexico, climate is characterized by arid, semiarid, or continental conditions, with light precipitation, low humidity, and abundant sunshine. This movement of air in different directions is also the reason for the high incidence of powerful tornados that occur along "Tornado Alley" in the Great Plains, which affect eastern New Mexico and especially eastern Colorado. In general, it is expected that high alpine glaciers in the Colorado Rockies will disappear as the climate continues to warm. In New Mexico, for example, the average difference between the daily high and low temperatures ranges from 14 to 19C (25 to 35F). Higher atmospheric moisture content has also been correlated with an increased incidence of tornados and winter storms. Storms form when there is strong convection in the atmosphere. In 2000-2003, the combination of severe drought and unusually high temperatures led to a significant die-off of pion pines in the Four Corners region of the Southwest. Zack and Mike mention that last year was an extremely dry monsoon, and this year is extremely wet. Map by NOAA(public domain) modified for the[emailprotected]project. During much of the year, the prevailing wind over northwestern Mexico, Arizona, and New Mexico is westerly (blowing from the west) and dry. Also found are a number of tree species with a disjunct distribution. Map of the modern Yucatn Peninsula region showing the location of the Chicxulub impact crater. Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) tracks, Pleistocene, White Sands National Park, New Mexico. Right:Graph of the lake's changing level over time. Data source: NOAA, 20212Web update: April2021. Photo of USNM PAL 165239 by Crinoid Type Project (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, public domain). Sci. Southwest Asia is a region of diverse climates and is generally divided into three main climate types: arid, semiarid, and temperate. Left:Lake Bonneville's maximal extent during the Pleistocene. Arizona's climate is influenced by three main topographical areas: the high Colorado Plateau (about 15202130 meters or 50007000 feet in elevation), the rugged mountains to the west (27403660 meters or 900012000 feet high), and the low southwestern mountains with desert valleys (as low as 30 meters or 100 feet above sea level). Because high mountains to the west and north act as a barrier to cold Arctic air masses, most areas of Utah rarely experience temperatures below freezing or prolonged periods of extreme cold. Published June 22, 2021 Updated Aug. 23, 2022. (3) There is a whole lot of interesting detail in this reportabout everything, but about the North American Monsoon specifically. Although on the western edge of the North American Monsoon, California plant geography indicates it makes a large contribution to the states southern flora. Drier conditions occurred through the 1920s/1930s, again in the 1950s, and since 1990, when the Southwest has seen some of the most persistent droughts on record (see Figure 3). This figure uses the U.S. Drought Monitor classification system, which is described in the table in the Droughtindicator. Large lakes formed in low areas, and the Southwests most striking ice age feature was Lake Bonneville, a massive pluvial lake that covered much of Utah. Thus, even a small increase in temperature (which drives evaporation) or a decrease in precipitation in this already arid region can seriously threaten natural systems and society. Regional overview Southwest. Some of these thunderstorms can be strong, delivering heavy rain and frequent lightning. Reconstruction created using basemap from the. In the middle Cretaceous, oceans covered most of the Southwest, with the exception of parts of Arizona and New Mexico. Modified from a map by Adam Peterson (Wikimedia Commons,Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license). Snowpack helps keep the ground and soil moist by covering it longer into the spring and summer, which delays the onset of the fire season and influences the prevalence and severity of wildfires. Figure by Climate.gov. For example San Diego county has a population of azalea otherwise not seen for hundreds of miles to the north. The new dry-land isthmus blocked the warm ocean currents that had been flowing east-to-west from the Atlantic to the Pacific for more than 100 million years, diverting them into the Gulf of Mexico and ultimately into the western Atlantic Gulf Stream. The Southwest has a very unique culture, climate, and geography. The Southwest's Triassic to Jurassic dune deposits are some of the most extensive in the world, and the dune field that existed during the Jurassic may be the largest in Earth history. Large glaciers were found at higher elevations, and temperatures were cool. Every part of the Southwest experienced higher average temperatures between 2000 and 2020than the long-term average (18952020). Photo by Santa Fe National Forest (National Interagency Fire Center on flickr, public domain). Shiprock is part of the San Juan volcanic field and dates to the Oligocene (about 27 million years ago). On the other hand, there is not much agreement among projections for future change in the monsoon, except for regarding the timingmost projections suggest that, under continued climate change, the monsoon will start later in the summer and end later in the fall than it currently does (3). For example, high winter temperatures between 2000 and 2003 correlated to bark beetle outbreaks that devastated pinyon pine throughout the Southwest, leading to nearly 90% mortality at some sites in Colorado and Arizona. The size and location of various lakes in which the Green River Formation sediments were deposited during the Eocene epoch. Shallow seaways spread over many of the continents, including South America, Africa, Eurasia, and North America. This chart shows the percentage of land area in six southwestern states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah) classified under drought conditions from 2000 through 2020. Summer temperatures on the South Rim, at 7000 feet (2134 meters), are especially pleasant from 50 to about 85 F (10s to 20s C). This may be due to the growth of solar energy, and voluntary commitments to reduce emissions made by large utility companies in the state. Precipitation also varies widely. Data for Figures 1 and 3 were obtained from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations National Centers for Environmental Information, which maintains a large collection of climate data online at: www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cag. 2021. Winter- The winter in the Southwest region is mild, and hot. The desert experiences large temperature extremes, especially between day and night; daily temperature may change as much as 15C (60F) during the driest parts of the year. See you then! Monsoon rainfall activity tends to be grouped into bursts, with periods of rainy days interspersed with drier periods, rather than rain every day. A= Tropical (equatorial),B= Arid,C= Temperate (warm temperate),D= Continental (cold),E= polar. These changes threaten economic productivity, public health, and the sustainability of Indigenous communities. A value between -2 and -3 indicates moderate drought, -3 to -4 is severe drought, and -4 or below indicates extreme drought. In chapter 8.3, How is the water cycle changing and why?, the report states In summary, both paleoclimate evidence and observations indicate an intensification of the NAmerM in a warmer climate (medium confidence). Loess is often, though not exclusively, associated with dry areas around glaciers. Southwest Increased heat, drought, and insect outbreaks, all linked to climate change, have increased wildfires. Of the southwestern states, Arizona emits the most greenhouse gases, releasing 92.5 million metric tons of energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) in 2019. These changes include the following: The seasonality and transmission frequency of insect-borne diseases and other infectious diseases prevalent in the Southwest, including plague, valley fever, and Hanta, are influenced by warming trends. These oases were fed by groundwater that originated in the higher country of what is now western Colorado. The geography and climate of the southwestern U.S. east of the Rocky Mountains (in other words, in the Great Plains region in Colorado and New Mexico) are nearly ideal for their formation of thunderstorms and tornados, especially in the summer. Extent of the Western Interior Seaway during the Cretaceous Period. Photo by James St. John (flickr, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license). Trees killed by bark beetles at Cameron Pass, Colorado, 2011. Climate changepast, present & future: a very short guide. In the latest Cretaceous, sea level dropped again and the western Southwest became a broad coastal plain that hosted lush forests, abundant dinosaurs, and large swamps. Fossils of a cycad (Dioonopsis praespinulosa) from the Paleocene Castle Rock Flora, Colorado. In a broad sense, the Southwests climate is mostly dry and hot, with much of the region characterized as arid. 2010. The ENSO blog is written, edited, and moderated by Michelle LHeureux (NOAA Climate Prediction Center), Emily Becker (University of Miami/CIMAS), Nat Johnson (NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory), and Tom DiLiberto and Rebecca Lindsey (contractors to NOAA Climate Program Office), with periodic guest contributors. Convective mixing stops because the vertical column of air has turned over so that the cool air is at the bottom and the warm air is at the top. Sun and storm in Weld County, in the Great Plains region of Colorado, 2015. A blog about monitoring and forecasting El Nio, La Nia, and their impacts. Alaska weather and daylight varies wildly by region and season, from short-sleeves in summer to down jackets in winter; from 7 rainy days in May in Southcentral to 17 rainy days in the Inside Passage. (2011)PLoS ONE3(7): e2791(Creative Commons Attribution license, image reorganized and resized). Despite the areas arid climate, the dunes were surprisingly full of life, particularly in southeastern Utah. Unfortunately, unpredictable winds spread the flames, which, combined with dry conditions, caused the Calf Canyon and Hermit Peak fires to grow beyond control. By the start of the Late Cretaceous, this inland sea, called the Western Interior Seaway, divided North America in two; the water was rich with mosasaurs, giant clams, and other marine life. Maps modified from maps by Wade Greenberg-Brand, originally published inThe Teacher-Friendly Guide to the Earth Science of the SouthwesternUS, after figure 3 in L. Grande (2013) The Lost World of Fossil Lake. Average temperatures found in the Southwest tend to decrease northward, which is largely the influence of latitude and elevation. Elevation does, however, play a key role in precipitation received throughout the Southwest. The causes of specific weather events such as tornados and severe thunderstorms are incredibly complex, although climate change has enhanced some correlated factors, such as increased wind speed and an unstable atmosphere. Forecasts had all of this widespread flash flooding. Water vapor animation for the afternoon of August 22, 2018 showing the monsoon circulation and thunderstorm formation (dark blue, green, dark red). A large, low-latitude desert formed along Pangaea's western margin, generating extensive dune deposits. The more than 16 million residents of the Southwest use carbon-rich fossil fuels to provide electricity for lighting, cooling, and appliances, to fuel their transportation and industry, and to make the products they use. Its largely too soon to tell. A couple of field campaigns, including the Arizona-based South-West Monsoon Project (SWAMP, 1993) and the international North American Monsoon Experiment (NAME, 2004), provided a lot of observational data and resulted in a better understanding of the mechanics of the monsoon. Branches and leaves of an ancient conifer (Walchia dawsonii), Permian Hermit Shale, Arizona. This salt is part of the Late Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) Paradox Formation. Average yearly tornado watches in each county of the United States between 1993 and 2012. The lack of moisture in the air allows heat trapped in the earth during daylight hours to rapidly radiate away, leading to cool evenings. Here, oases with large trees, large colonies of burrowing animals, and reptile trackways punctuated the otherwise dry and sandy landscape. Average temperatures range from about 60 to 80 F in Paris, while in Nice and on the south coast they range from around 80 to 90 F. In recent years, heatwaves in Paris and elsewhere have brought record-breaking temperatures, sometimes exceeding 100 degrees F. Summer storm systems are common. Pangaea began to break up during the Jurassic, rifting apart into continents that would drift toward their modern-day positions. While most of the evidence for cooling at the Eocene-Oligocene boundary comes from the deep sea, fossil mammals in the Rocky Mountains show clear evidence of a change from forests to grasslands, which is associated with global cooling. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS Photo by Gregory Smith (flickr, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license, image cropped and resized). NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). Natural variability, changes in irrigation practices, and other diversions of water for human use can influence certain drought-related measurements. Hailstones from a storm in Limon, Colorado, 2010. Summer rains fall almost entirely during brief but intense thunderstorms on the Great Plains, although the occasional hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico may push heavier precipitation inland. Resilient Bermudagrass is widely used in the region, but sufficient watering is essential in the desert climate .
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southwest region climate in summer