Latest Deserts News
Burning Man narrowly passes environmental inspection months after torrential rain upended festival
RENO, Nev. (AP) — The organizers of the Burning Man festival narrowly passed their environmental inspection after mass torrential rains closed roads, jammed traffic and forced many to walk miles barefoot through muck, leaving trails of debris in the remote Nevada desert, according to a Wednesday...
Nicaragua’s exiled clergy and faithful in Miami keep up struggle for human rights at Mass
MIAMI (AP) — When the Rev. Silvio Báez finished his homily on a recent Sunday, applause broke out among the hundreds of faithful in St. Agatha Catholic Church, on the outskirts of Miami, that has become the spiritual home of the growing Nicaraguan diaspora. For the...
Japanese Americans were jailed in a desert. Survivors worry a wind farm will overshadow the past.
JEROME, Idaho (AP) — Behind the barbed wire, the little boy pressed his ink-covered index finger onto the mint-green exit card. And a photograph was snapped of his frightened face. Paul Tomita was four. It was July 4, 1943. Independence Day at Minidoka, a camp in...
Inspired by llamas, the desert and Mother Earth, these craftswomen weave sacred textiles
COLCHANE, Chile (AP) — In northern Chile, Teófila Challapa learned to weave surrounded by the hills and sandy roads of the Atacama Desert. “Spin the threads, girl,” her grandmother told her a half a century ago. Aymara women like Challapa, now 59, become...
Phoenix has set another heat record by hitting 110 degrees on 54 days this year
PHOENIX (AP) — How hot is it in Phoenix? In what has been the hottest summer ever measured, the sizzling city in the Sonoran Desert broke yet another record Saturday when temperatures topped 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 Celsius). It was the 54th day this year that the official...
Phoenix is on the cusp of a new heat record after a 53rd day reaching at least 110 degrees this year
PHOENIX (AP) — Phoenix is on the cusp of yet another heat record this summer after an additional day of 110-degree weather. The National Weather Service said the desert city on Friday saw 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 Celsius) for the 53rd day this year, tying it with the record...
The Burning Man party is over. Now a massive cleanup begins
RENO, Nev. (AP) — The rain has passed, and the temple has burned. Now, as Burning Man slowly empties, it’s time to clean up. Burning Man organizers have three weeks to clean up any remnants of the makeshift city plopped across over 4 square miles (10 square kilometers) of the...
Phoenix on track to set another heat record, this time for most daily highs at or above 110 degrees
PHOENIX (AP) — Phoenix, already the hottest large city in America, is poised to set yet another heat record this weekend while confirmed heat-associated deaths are on track for a record of their own. The National Weather Service says after a brief respite from the heat over the...
California mountain and desert towns dig out of the mud tropical storm
CATHEDRAL CITY, Calif. (AP) — Crews in mountain and desert towns worked to clear away mud and debris Tuesday in the aftermath of a tropical storm that hit Southern California. The system was dissipating as it moved over the Rocky Mountains. Hilary dumped record...
Wait times to exit Burning Man drop after flooding left tens of thousands stranded in Nevada desert
BLACK ROCK DESERT, Nev. (AP) — Wait times for tens of thousands of Burning Man partygoers trying to exit the mud-caked northern Nevada desert are beginning to decrease after flooded roads left them stranded there for days. Event organizers said they started to let traffic flow out...
