ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies the ingredients of weather and climate for the interior desert. The Chihuahuan Desert is a large, relatively isolated arid zone embedded in the center of North America's subtropical latitudes. This arid zone covers most of north central Mexico with a tongue extending northward into west Texas and soutern New Mexico. The Chihuahuan Desert spans more than 11° latitude, and 355,000 km, or 1.5% of North America. Nearly three-fourths of the arid zone is in Mexico where it accounts for 13% of the national territory. The interpretation of the Chihuahuan Desert, based upon the de Martonne Index of Aridity, coincides most closely with the Thornthwaite map. The average annual temperature for the Chihuahuan Desert is 18.6°C with station averages ranging from about 14°C to 23°C. The northwest boundary of the Chihuahuan Desert, which extends across the Continental Divide of southern New Mexico into eastern Arizona, comprises a broad transition zone.
