There is a monsoon that occurs in the southwestern U.S. each summer, and it brought heavy rain to the deserts of Arizona this week. This monsoon is less well known than India's Summer Monsoon, but both monsoons have similar causes [1, 2, 3]. In western Mexico and the southern edge of the southwest U.S., most of the year's rain typically falls in just three months: June, July, and August. The region is shown in light blue in the below climate map, which shows where summer rainfall predominates (Figure 1). This seasonal pattern is known as the North American Monsoon. The map was generated using

Climate change impacts all of us in various ways. Changes in soil moisture have a pronounced effect on agricultural production, which in turn impacts the food we grow to eat, and changes in precipitation patterns are leading to increases in drought in certain regions and causing flooding in others. All of which are influenced by interactions among components of Earth involving the atmosphere, ocean, land, ice, and life. These factors combine with long-term changes forced largely by human activities, such as the release of greenhouse gases, drive the climate system and result in distinct