Nevada Desert
Overview
There are three major hot deserts and one cold desert that are located in the Southwest part of the United States with each of these deserts having many “subdivisions” of deserts.
Geographically, they are located from northwest to southeast, Great Basin Desert, Mojave Desert, Sonoran Desert, and the Chihuahuan Desert.
Chihuahuan Desert
The largest hot desert in North America is the Chihuahuan Desert, located in the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico. Its total area is 140,000 square miles.
The elevations are generally high, averaging between 3,500′ and 5,000′, and as a result, temperatures fall below freezing during winter nights.
Sonoran Desert
The Sonoran Desert is a desert located in the Southwestern United States (mostly Arizona) and northwest Mexico. It is the second-largest hot desert in North America. Its total area is 120,000 square miles.
It is a warm, low-elevation subtropical desert that receives relatively large amounts of predictable rain during two rainy seasons, the winter season and the summer monsoon season.
Mojave Desert
The Mojave Desert is the hottest desert in North America, located primarily in southeastern California. Its total area is 22,000 square miles.
Great Basin Desert
The largest cold desert is the Great Basin Desert, which encompasses much of the northern Basin and Range Province, north of the Mojave Desert.
Other cold deserts lie within the Columbia Plateau/Columbia Basin, the Snake River Plain, and the Colorado Plateau regions.
-
Nevada Desert