The saguaro is an iconic image of the West. Thousands of saguaros died on the buffelgrass-laden lower slopes of the Santa Catalina Mountains on the north side of Tucson in June, when a massive lightning-ignited fire erupted and burned for seven weeks. Buffelgrass, which has been thriving in hotter, drier conditions, forms a flammable carpet around the cactus.

While heat is not necessarily a threat at this point - heat makes the cactus grow - it has contributed to a devastating new risk: fire kindled by invasive buffelgrass, a South African import. Over the course of 124 uninterrupted days, daytime temperatures never dropped below 100 degrees, with 50 of those days peaking at 105 degrees or higher. But 2020 was also Tucson’s hottest summer on record. Individual weather events don’t inform a trend, Crimmins said. Crimmins, a meteorologist and University of Arizona Climate Science Extension specialist, suspects that the nonsoon resulted from multiple forces, citing La Niña and El Niño, climate patterns in the Pacific Ocean that affect weather around the globe.

The lack of rain compounded long-term drought conditions. A pitiful 1.62 inches of rain fell, compared with the average 6.08 inches - a rare occurrence that in meteorological dark humor is termed a “nonsoon.” As a result, 2020 was Tucson’s driest year on record, according to the National Weather Service. Nearly half the annual rainfall required to hydrate the Sonoran Desert is delivered by the monsoon. North America’s only monsoon - and the reason the Sonoran Desert is billed as the world’s “wettest desert”- brings billowing cumulonimbus clouds that drench the land in rain. The summer of 2020 “fits with what we are going to continue to see with climate change,” says Wilder, beginning with the monsoon. A saguaro skeleton and buffelgrass on Tumamoc Hill. “I wouldn’t bet against a desert species.” Wilder, director of the University of Arizona’s Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill, where botanists began studying the saguaro 118 years ago. “If we’re going to find any communities or ecosystems well suited to these climate stressors, the desert is going to be a pretty good one,” said Benjamin T. There is a special affinity between the saguaro and science, a linkage that has made it one of the most studied plants in the world. In a climate wake-up call, drought and record-breaking heat in 2020 contributed to wildfires that killed thousands of saguaros.īut the saguaro has friends keeping watch. It’s a landscape of rock, hard sand and open blue sky, and the saguaro has been part of it for 10,000 years.Īnd now, a changing climate is raising concerns about how the saguaro will survive the 21st century in an environment that’s hot and getting hotter, dry and getting drier. The saguaro grows in just one part of the world: in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona northern Mexico a smidgen of California and most prolifically in a mountainous swath that flows west from Tucson to the California border. Sometimes the arms are curled if two are growing side by side, they’re often hugging. Supported by its wood skeleton, the saguaro can sprout dozens of arms. A mature saguaro can grow to 40 feet and weigh a ton after soaking up rainwater. The largest cactus in the United States, the saguaro is distinct, visually and biologically. Arizona state law protects the plant, and it is revered by the native Tohono O’odham tribe. Its silhouette appears in fine art and on restaurant walls businesses and schools carry its name. Arms raised in a perpetual “hello there,” the saguaro covers the desert wilderness and thrives in cities. TUCSON - The giant saguaro, an icon of the American West, is beloved in this state. Sign up here to receive stories of kindness, resilience and the best among us every Wednesday and Sunday. This story was featured in The Optimist newsletter.

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