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A Grand Climate
Thu Jul 24, 2003
Listen in RealAudio 
The Grand Canyon drops over a mile vertically, from the North Rim to the Colorado River, a bit
less from the south side. This means, as you descend, you pass through several different
climate zones. I talked to Supervisory Ranger Chuck Wahlert about this, as we stood on the
South Rim.
CHUCK: As you get the elevation at the river in this part of the canyon, down where Phantom
Ranch is, is just about the same as Phoenix so you do start seeing cactus - I mean there are
even some cactus up here on the rim but the further down you go, the drier the climate, the
less rainfall overall.
BRYAN: I saw - when I was going down the Bright Angel yesterday there was a corner down fairly
close to the bottom and I noticed there was a little - I think they're called saguaro
cacti?
CHUCK: I don't know if there's saguaro in the park. There's probably some barrel cactus and
some other small things but you've got to be pretty close to Phoenix before you'll start
finding saguaro.
CHUCK: I guess, you know, the challenge we have when people ask us "What's the weather like on
average?" Over a 24 hour period it's not uncommon to get pretty significant changes in
temperature - you know, 30, 40, occasionally even 50 degrees sometimes isn't that
unusual.
BRYAN: So you probably have the same situation as we do where people call up and say "We're
getting married on August 17th. What's the weather going to be like?"
CHUCK: That's right and we'll tell them that it might snow, the chances of a thundershower are
probably pretty good, and it could be anywhere from 50 to 80 degrees.
The Weather Notebook is funded by The National Science Foundation, and Subaru, Driven by
What's Inside. Thanks today to the entire Weather Notebook Staff Doug Sanborn, Melody Nester,
Sean Doucette, and Peter Crane.
Today's Links
Grand Canyon National Park
http://www.nps.gov/grca/index.htm
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