WHY IS THE WEST ARID?
As I have stated before, the climate for most of the American West is an arid to semi-arid landscape. Figure 1 illustrates the desert conditions in some of the Western states. Figure 1-Shows a view of the arid hills surrounding Death Valley, California. This occurrence happens for many reasons including the topography of the region and the weather patterns. The topography of the region is partly made up by the Basin and Range Province and the volcanism that occurred during the extension of the crust and the arc-volcanism that occurred because of the convergence of the Farallon and North American plates. Therefore, the Western U.S. has mountain ranges that extend down the coast and stop the moisture from entering the interior of the U.S. from the west. These mountain ranges stop the storms and deprive them of their moisture so that by the time the storms actually make it over the mountains they do not have any moisture. The eastern side of the mountains are in a rain shadow therefore, t
