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Note: Alaska and Hawaii are shown out of
position for reference only and are not to scale.
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Arizona State Outline Map
Arizona is located in the
Western United
States as one of the
Four Corners
states. Arizona is the sixth largest state in area,
after New Mexico and
before Nevada. Of the state's
118,000 square miles (306,000 km²), approximately
15% is privately owned. The remaining area is
government forest and park land, recreation areas
and Native American reservations.
Arizona is
best known for its desert
landscape, which is rich in
xerophyte plants such as
cactus. It is also known for its
climate, which presents exceptionally hot summers and mild
winters. Less well known is the pine-covered high country of
the Colorado Plateau in the
north-central portion of the state, which contrasts with the
desertic Basin and Range
region in the southern portions of the state.
Like other
states of the Southwest,
Arizona has an abundance of topographical characteristics in
addition to its desert climate. More
than half of the state features
mountains and plateaus and
contains the largest stand of
Ponderosa pine in the United
States. The Mogollon Rim, a
2000-foot (600 m) escarpment, cuts
across the central section of the state and marks the
southwestern edge of the Colorado Plateau, where the state
experienced its worst forest
fire ever in 2002. Arizona belongs firmly within the
Basin and Range region of North America. The region was
shaped by prehistoric volcanism,
followed by a cooling-off and related
subsidence. The entire region is slowly sinking.
The
Grand Canyon is a colorful,
steep-sided gorge, carved by the
Colorado River, in
northern Arizona. The canyon is one of the
seven natural
wonders of the world and is largely contained in the
Grand Canyon National
Park—one of the first national
parks in the United States.
President Theodore Roosevelt
was a major proponent of designating the Grand Canyon area,
visiting on numerous occasions to hunt
mountain lion and enjoy the
scenery.
The Canyon
was created by the Colorado River
cutting a channel over millions of years, and is about 277
miles (446 km) long, ranges in width from 4 to 18 miles (6
to 29 kilometers) and attains a depth of more than 1 mile
(1.6 km). Nearly 2 billion years of the
Earth's history has been exposed as the Colorado River
and its tributaries cut through layer after layer of
sediment as the
Colorado Plateaus have
uplifted.
Arizona is
home to one of the largest and most well-preserved meteorite
impact sites in the world. The Barringer Meteorite Crater
(better known simply as "Meteor
Crater") is a gigantic hole in the middle of the high
plains of the Colorado Plateau, about 25 miles (40 km) west
of Winslow. A rim of smashed
and jumbled boulders, some of them the size of small houses,
rises 150 feet (46 m) above the level of the surrounding
plain. The crater itself is nearly a mile wide, and 570 feet
(174 m) deep.
Arizona
does not observe Daylight
Saving Time, except in the
Navajo Nation, located in the northeastern region of the
state.
Climate
Due to its
large area and variations in elevation, the state has a wide
variety of localized climate conditions. In the lower
elevations, the climate is primarily desert, with mild
winters and hot summers. Typically, from late fall to early
spring, the weather is mild, averaging a minimum of 60
degrees Fahrenheit (15
°C). November through February are
the coldest months with temperatures typically ranging from
40–75 °F (4–24 °C), although occasional
frosts are not uncommon. About midway through February,
the temperatures start to rise again with warm days, and
cool breezy nights. The summer months of May through August
bring a dry heat ranging from 90–120 °F (32–48 °C), with
occasional high temperatures exceeding 125 °F (52 °C) having
been observed in the desert area. Due to the primarily dry
climate, large temperature swings often occur between day
and night, with some as large as 50 °F (28 °C) in the summer
months.
However,
the northern third of Arizona is a
plateau at significantly higher altitudes than the lower
desert, and has an appreciably cooler climate, with cold
winters and mild summers. Extreme cold temperatures are not
unknown; cold air systems from the northern states and
Canada occasionally push into the
state, bringing temperatures below 0 °F (–18 °C) to the
higher parts of the state.
Arizona has
an average annual rainfall of 12.7 inches
(322 mm), which
comes during two rainy seasons, with
cold fronts coming from the
Pacific Ocean during the winter and a
monsoon in the summer. The monsoon
season occurs from the middle of July through August and
brings lightning,
thunderstorms, wind, and
torrential, if usually brief, downpours. It is rare for
tornadoes and
hurricanes to
occur in Arizona, but there are records of both occurring.
Indicative
of the variation in climate, Arizona is the state which has
both the metropolitan area with the most days over 100 °F
(37.8 °C) (Phoenix), and the
metropolitan area in the lower 48 states with nearly the
most days with a low temperature below freezing (Flagstaff).
Interactive Arizona State Map
Explore the state of Arizona with the dynamic map below. You can
zoom, pan and even get a satellite map view.
Move your cursor over the markers on the map to
learn more about Arizona.
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