Topic: arid climate

FILE - This Sept. 3, 2008 file photo shows an endangered desert tortoise sitting in the middle of an eastern Mojave Desert road near Ivanpah, Calif. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)

The science of desert water

Judith Lewis Mernit - Capital & Main
FILE - In this Monday, Sept. 8, 2014 file photo, a truck crosses floodwaters on a road in Moapa, Nev. Monsoon season in the Southwest, which officially ended Sept. 30, will go down as a record-breaker. Meteorologists say some areas in Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico received more rain in one day than in a normal summer. The intense amount of moisture also brought flood damage that is still being felt in homes and roads throughout the region. (AP Photo/John Locher,File) (AP)

Monster monsoons in Arizona

Bobby Magill - Climate Central