This list of North American deserts identifies areas of the continent which receive less than 10 in (250 mm) annual precipitation. The "North American Desert" is also the term for a large U.S. Level 1 ecoregion (EPA) of the North American Cordillera, in the Deserts and xeric shrublands biome (WWF). The continent's deserts are largely between the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Madre Oriental on the east, and the rain shadow-creating Sierra Nevada, Transverse, and Peninsular Ranges on the west. The North American xeric region of over 95,751 sq mi (247,990 km2) includes: 3 major deserts; numerous smaller deserts; and large non-desert arid regions; in the western United States and in northeast, central, and northwest Mexico.
There are three major hot and dry deserts in North America, all located in the Western United States and Northern Mexico. These are:
The Chihuahuan Desert – the largest desert in North America, located in the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico - (140,000 square miles (360,000 km2))
The Sonoran Desert – a desert located in the Southwestern United States and Northwest Mexico. It is the second largest desert in North America. - (120,000 square miles (310,000 km2))
The Mojave Desert – the hottest desert in North America, located primarily in southeastern California - (22,000 square miles (57,000 km2))
Additionally, a large cold desert, the Great Basin Desert, encompasses much of the northern Basin and Range Province, north of the Mojave Desert.
Other smaller cold deserts lie within the Columbia Plateau/Columbia Basin, the Snake River Plain, and the Colorado Plateau regions.
Canada has a small patch of desert along the Thompson River at the Village of Ashcroft.
(Listed from north to south)
Western Canada
Ashcroft - Located along the Thompson River. The entire length of the Thompson River from Kamloops to Lytton is at least semi-arid, but at the midpoint near Ashcroft, the climate is dry enough to be classified as arid.
Washington - Idaho - Wyoming - Oregon - Nevada
Much of the Columbia Basin is desert, such as the
Channeled Scablands, a desert in the Columbia Basin of eastern Washington
Most of the Snake River Plain (ecoregion) is sagebrush steppe, but barren lava fields form small deserts, such as
Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho
The Wyoming Basin (ecoregion) is dominated by arid grasslands and shrub steppe, but also contains the
Red Desert (Wyoming)
Owyhee Desert, in southwestern Idaho, northern Nevada, and southeastern Oregon.
Yp Desert, a portion of the Owyhee Desert in Idaho
Oregon High Desert, aka "Great Sandy Desert", eastern Oregon
Alvord Desert, a dry lake bed.
Northwest Lahontan subregion in Nevada-part of the Northern Basin and Range (ecoregion)
Black Rock Desert, a dry lake bed.
Great Basin Desert
Nevada, dominated by sagebrush steppe
Forty Mile Desert, in northwest Nevada
Smoke Creek Desert, Nevada (980 sq mi)
Carson Desert
Utah
Great Salt Lake Desert, Utah
Sevier Desert surrounds the intermittent, salty Sevier Lake
Black Rock Desert volcanic field
Escalante Desert (3,270 sq mi)
Colorado Plateau
Utah
San Rafael Desert, the drier portions of the San Rafael Swell
Colorado, dominated by pinyon-juniper woodlands, but contains desert areas where unfavorable soil conditions exist:
Bisti Badlands Desert, New Mexico
Painted Desert, Arizona
Mojave Desert
California (the High Desert); and parts of western Arizona and southern Nevada.
Death Valley, California
Amargosa Desert, Nevada
Sonoran Desert
Colorado Desert, Southern California (the Low Desert)
Yuha Desert, Imperial Valley, California
Yuma Desert, southwest Arizona
Lechuguilla Desert, southwest Arizona
Tule Desert (Arizona) and Sonora, Mexico
Gran Desierto de Altar, Sonora, Mexico
Baja California Desert, State of Baja California, Mexico
Vizcaíno Desert, central State of Baja California, Mexico
Chihuahuan Desert
Trans-Pecos Desert, west Texas
White Sands, unusual gypsum dune field in New Mexico
The separately defined western arid regions of North America are continental regions of aridity based on available water in addition to rain shadow-diminished rainfall and which have many non-desert shrub-steppe (EPA) and xeric shrublands (WWF) in addition to desert ecosystems and ecoregions. This large arid region of 190,000 sq mi (490,000 km2) includes: deserts, such as the Great Basin Desert and Sonoran Desert; and the non-desert arid region areas (with greater than 10 inches annual precipitation) in the Great Basin arid region, Colorado Plateau, Mexican Plateau, and others. This arid region extends from the top of the North American Desert in Washington and Idaho southward into Mexico in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt. The 'western arid region' is east of and (except for Mojave sky islands) discontiguous from the Mojave Desert, unlike the southwestern Great Basin deserts adjacent with ecotones to the northern Mojave Desert.
