Title: Climate Change in the Southwest - Potential Impacts (U.S. National Park Service)
Headings: Climate Change in the Southwest - Potential Impacts
Series: Climate Change in the Southwest
Climate Change in the Southwest - Potential Impacts
Climate change in the Southwest
Potential climate change impacts
Water
Vegetation
Vegetation shifts
Fire
Impacts by Region

Content: Climate Change in the Southwest - Potential Impacts (U.S. National Park Service)
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Series: Climate Change in the Southwest
Climate Change in the Southwest - Potential Impacts
In the Southwest, climate change may impact a variety of resources, including water availability in the form of snowpack and spring streamflow, the distribution and composition of plant communities, and fire regimes. Climate change in the Southwest
The global rise in temperatures will affect different locations on earth in unique ways. Scientists have identified the Southwest as a climate change hotspot—an area whose climate is particularly vulnerable to an increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (Diffenbaugh et al. 2008). The models used by the US Global Change Research Program indicate that the average annual temperature in the Southwest may increase by 4 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit, compared to temperatures between 1960 and 1979. Atmospheric circulation patterns are likely to change, causing southwestern climate to become more arid overall (Christensen et al. 2007, Seager et al. 2007). The aridity may become much worse during La Niña events, causing droughts that may be more severe than any other droughts seen in the climate record, including the medieval megadroughts (Seager et al.