Climate of the Great Plains Region of The United States

Authors

Norman J. Rosenberg, University of Nebraska's Center for Agricultural Meteorology and Climatology

Date of this Version

1987

Document Type

Article

Comments

Published in Great Plains Quarterly 7:1 (Winter 1987). Copyright © 1987 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Abstract

The climate of the Great Plains is extreme and variable. A wide range of weather conditions can occur within the period of a day, from one day to the next, from season to season, and from year to year. There are two key reasons for this situation: (1) the greatest portion of the Plains is remote from any major body of water and (2) air masses of differing characteristics alternate frequently in their dominance of the region.