What will happen in the Southwest as a result of Global Warming?
Again, there is uncertainty in any honest answer to this. There are two sources of information relevant to this question. One source is historical records of the climate of the past, and the other is computer simulations of the climate of the future. It’s important to remember that the Southwest is BIG, so it may be that different parts of the region will experience different changes. Generally, though, putting all the information together suggests that it will become somewhat warmer, especially the winters, and possibly wetter, although the question of precipitation is not at all settled. One problem with making regional climate change predictions is that computer models do not agree on what will happen in the future. This is probably because these models are not designed to focus on the specific weather processes that dominate the weather and climate of the Southwest. For example, much of the precipitation here is affected by the presence of mountain ranges. But the climate models do
