Mondo Knows Facts
The Sonoran is the wettest desert on Earth
Two separate rainy seasons support trees, large cacti and animals found in few other deserts Summer storms draw moisture up from the Gulf of California, and winter brings Pacific fronts across the region. That split supply lets the saguaro and other column cacti grow large. The desert covers parts of Arizona, California and Sonora and reaches the coast at the head of the gulf. It sits in Mondo's world geography collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
Where this comes from
Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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More facts like this
The Mojave is defined by its treesIts boundary is drawn where Joshua trees grow, a line no rainfall figure matchesThe Patagonian Desert lies in the Andes rain shadowWesterly winds drop their moisture on the mountains, leaving the eastern plains dryThe Kalahari is not quite a true desertIt gets enough rain to grow grass and trees, so many classify it as dry savannaAntarctica is technically the largest desert on EarthAntarctica receives an average of less than 200 millimetres of precipitation each year along its coast and far less inland.The Sahara is the largest hot desert in the worldSpanning over nine million square kilometres, the Sahara covers much of North Africa.The Gobi is a cold desert made by distanceThe plateau lies so far inland that monsoon moisture is gone before the air arrives
🗺️ World Geographyfact 119 of 200
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Tags: deserts, north-america, climate
The Sonoran is the wettest desert on Earth: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Two separate rainy seasons support trees, large cacti and animals found in few other deserts. The figure is taken from National Park Service, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a world geography fact?
- Yes. It sits on the World Geography shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.