Arizona State and Local Government Documents Collection

Fort Lowell was a supply base for the United States Army “Apache Campaigns” between 1873 and 1891. Following abandonment of the fort in 1891, settlers moved in and used some fort buildings as residences, or stripped the buildings of useful materials. By the 1930s, much of the fort had fallen into disrepair or had been sold off. Eventually, the City of Tucson acquired a large portion of the old fort which became what is today’s “Fort Lowell Park.” A 5.2 acre (“Adkins”) parcel of the former fort containing several original adobe buildings was still in private ownership, and the 2004 County bond election passed a proposal to acquire the land and preserve the historic resources.

The study had three main goals: (1) to assess the vulnerability of groundwater-dependent agriculture to climate variability, (2) to identify historical and current processes of adaptation to the vagaries of climate in the region— these refer to both system wide adaptations and individual farmer’s adaptations, and, (3) to assess the use of and needs for seasonal climate forecast information in agricultural decision making. The report is targeted at institutional stakeholders (i.e., agricultural extension personnel), physical scientists (particularly climatologists), and policymakers (at the level of NOAA and other federal agencies). Specific recommendations are made to these groups in order to improve the delivery of seasonal forecasts, set research priorities, and inform public policy.

This five-year update of Arizona’s Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP) is in accordance with the provisions of the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act, which was enacted in 1964 to encourage the provision of greater recreation opportunities for American citizens. Arizona receives annual congressional appropriations administered through the Arizona State Parks Board to fund state and local government sponsored outdoor recreation projects.

This update of Arizona’s Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan is in accordance with the provisions of the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act, which was enacted in 1964 to encourage the provision of greater recreation opportunities for American citizens. Arizona receives annual congressional appropriations from LWCF, administered through the Arizona State Parks Board to fund state and local government sponsored outdoor recreation projects.

This paper summarizes the current state of knowledge concerning the climate of the Southwest. Low annual precipitation, clear skies, and year-round warm weather over much of the Southwest are due in large part to a quasi-permanent subtropical high-pressure ridge over the region. However, the Southwest is located between the mid-latitude and subtropical atmospheric circulation regimes, and this positioning relative to shifts in these regimes is the fundamental reason for the region's climatic variability. El Niño, which is an increase in sea surface temperature of the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean with an associated shift of the active center of atmospheric convection from the western to the central equatorial Pacific, has a well developed teleconnection with the Southwest, usually resulting in wet winters. La Niña, the opposite oceanic case of El Niño, usually results in dry winters for the Southwest. Another important oceanic influence on winter climate of the Southwest is a feature called the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, which has been defined as temporal variation in sea surface temperatures for most of the Northern Pacific Ocean. The major feature that sets climate of the Southwest apart from the rest of the United States is the North American monsoon, which, in the US, is most noticeable in Arizona and New Mexico. Up to 50% of the annual rainfall of Arizona and New Mexico occurs as monsoonal storms from July through September.