Flora and Fauna News

Parched & Dry

By Michael Plagens
Sonoran Desert Sciences

PHOENIX, Az. ----- The Sonoran Desert, like deserts in general, is expected to be dry, but the current dry spell is a record breaker. With the close of the 1999 monsoon season on September 22, the Sonoran Desert would normally enter a drought period. But this one has been exceptionally dry and has pushed well into the winter rainy season. The US Weather Service reports that the spell of rainless days has stretched to 92. The forecast is for at least several more dry days to be tacked onto this record.

Without these early winter rains, the forecast for the Spring 2000 flower show is already dismal. This is especially so as the predictions are for dry weather to persist through the winter due to La Niņa conditions, i.e., cooler than normal surface water in the Eastern Pacific.

Crispy dry leaves from the deciduous tree,
Western Soapberry (Sapindus saponaria).