Sonoran desert

1. Sonoran desert By: Allison Gordon , Christin Garrison, Jacob Ivey, Juda

2. Climate • The sunlight of the Sonoran desert changes during the day and it gets hotter. Seasonal temperatures range from an average of 52° F in the winter, to 86°F in the summer. In some seasons the temperatures can reach 32° F at night. In some portions of the desert, near the tip of Mexico, the temperature can reach a high of 134° F (in the shade). • The latitude of the Sonoran Desert ranges from 25° to 33° North, and the longitude ranges from 105° to 110° West.

3. The Sonoran desert is one of the wettest deserts in North America and averages from 3 to 16 inches of rain a year. It has two rainy seasons, one in the summer and another in the winter. The summer rains are short and heavy and are often followed by a rainbow. The winter rains are longer and lighter and are more widespread. • There are a lot of sand dunes and grasses in the desert. There are also a lot of cacti, herbs, thorny and thorn less bushes. The creosote bush is the most common plant, and the saguaro cactus is the largest and the most noticeable plant in the desert.

4. The classifications of this climate is BWh, where B stands for a dry climate, BW stands for, being without moisture or extremely dry climate with annual precipitation, usually less than 15 inches, and h stands for a dry and hot climate with a average annual temperature over 65° F. • Even though the Sonoran desert is one of the hottest North American deserts, it has lots of vegetation and wildlife due to its two rainy seasons.

5. The Sonoran Desert has many different climates and plants. This desert gets 120 to 300 mm of precipitation each year, mostly as rain. Daytime temperatures can reach or go over 40° C during the summer months of May through September. The rain falls during two wet seasons. One rainy season occurs from December through March and the other from July through September. • Winter rainfall is higher in the western part of the desert, and lowest in the southeast. The Upland Sonoran Desert has regular amounts of winter and summer rainfall. Although winter frosts are common there, they are not extreme. Where the Sonoran desert merges with the Mojave desert in the northwest, summer rainfall is usually scarce. The Arizona Upland has five seasons. There is the summer monsoon from early July to mid-September. Autumn exists from October to November with warm temperatures and low humidity. Winter is from December to February and has mostly sunny, mild days, with some storms with wind, rain and cool temperatures. Spring is from late February to late April. The temperatures are mild with little rain. The fore-summer drought occurs in May and June. The temperature is high and the humidity low. There is no rain in most years.

6. The Lower Colorado Valley region of the Sonoran desert is the hottest and driest. Annual rainfall is 50 mm or less. Summer temperatures are usually around 50° C. Sand dunes and drought tolerant shrubs with some succulents are found in this region. One of the driest areas in North America lies in the western Sonoran near the Desierto de Altar. The region gets less than 9 cm of rain per year and droughts can last for more than 2 years. • In Sonora, Mexico the desert has a wetter summer rainy season with a drier winter. Drought deciduous plants are common in this area. • The Sonoran desert on Baja has cool moist weather in the winter. Summer isn't quite as hot as most of the Sonoran desert because of the cooling effect of the Pacific Ocean. Moisture from fog and dew allow epiphytes to grow on the desert plants. Many different types of agaves and yuccas grow in this region.

7. Adaptations • Banded Gila Monster – is a spotted animal that spends most of it’s life underground in it’s burrow. • The spots are all over his body and are in colors of pink, orange and red. Four or five black bands. The multi-colored spots signal to other animals that it is poisonous. • It hunts during the day and normally, isn’t seen by hunters, because it is shy.

8. Geology of the Sonora Desert • Many mountains and basins with occasional vast white areas that can go on for miles that are composed of minerals from evaporated water. There are also high amounts of copper ore in the area.