Yuma

Sister cities

• Frankfurt (Oder)

History

The area's first inhabitants were Native American cultures and historic tribes. Their descendants now occupy the Cocopah and Quechan reservations. In 1540, Spanish colonial expeditions under Hernando de Alarcón and Melchior Díaz visited the area and immediately recognized the natural crossing of the Colorado River as an ideal spot for a city. The Colorado River narrows to slightly under wide in one area. Military expeditions that crossed the Colorado River at the Yuma Crossing include Juan Bautista de Anza (1774), the Mormon Battalion (1848) and the California Column (1862). During and after the California Gold Rush to the late 1870s, the Yuma Crossing was known for its ferry crossings for the Southern Emigrant Trail. This was considered the gateway to California and the "Great Southwest", as it was one of the few natural spots where travelers could cross the otherwise very wide Colorado River. Following the United States establishing Fort Yuma, two towns developed one mile downriver. The one on the California side was called Jaeger City, named after the owner of Jaeger's Ferry, which crossed the river there. It was for a time the larger of the two, with the Butterfield Overland Mail office and station, two blacksmiths, a hotel, two stores, and other dwellings. The other was called Colorado City. Developed on the south side of the river in what is now Arizona by speculator Charles Poston, it was the site of the custom house. When started, it was just north of the border between Mexican-ruled Sonora, Mexico and California. After the Gadsden Purchase by the United States, the town bordered on the Territory of New Mexico. This area was designated as the Territory of Arizona in 1863. The Colorado City site at the time was duly registered in San Diego; both banks of…

Geography

Yuma is near the borders of California to the west and Mexico to the south, and just west of the Gila River's confluence with the Colorado. The city is approximately from the Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez), a branch of the Pacific. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and (0.07%) is water. Yuma is noted for its weather extremes. Of any populated place in the contiguous United States, Yuma is the driest, the sunniest, and the least humid, has the lowest frequency of precipitation, and has the highest number of sunny days per year—175—with a daily maximum temperature of or higher. Yuma features a hot desert climate (Köppen climate classification BWh), with extremely hot summers and warm winters. Atmospheric humidity is usually very low, except during what are called "Gulf surges", when a maritime tropical air mass from the Gulf of California is drawn northward, usually in connection with the summer monsoon or the passage of a tropical storm to the south. The sun is said to shine during about 90% of the daylight hours, making Yuma one of the sunniest places in the world. The city receives the most recorded mean sunshine of anywhere on Earth, although the equipment used by the United States tends to provide higher sunshine estimates than the traditional Campbell–Stokes recorder. On average, Yuma receives of rain annually. Even in the wettest year of 2005, only fell. The driest year at Yuma Airport was 2007, with only recorded. On average, the wettest months of the year are during the monsoon months of August and September, and December, when moisture from winter storms arrives from the Pacific Ocean. June is the driest month, with drought virtually absolute. In 1995, Yuma recorded its all-time high…

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• House Finch

  Haemorhous mexicanus (P.L.Statius Müller, 1776) · Aves
  773
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  675
• Eurasian Collared-Dove

  Streptopelia decaocto (Frivaldszky, 1838) · Aves
  617
• Larrea tridentata (DC.) Coult.

  Larrea tridentata (DC.) Coult. · Magnoliopsida
  532
• Northern Mockingbird

  Mimus polyglottos (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  450
• Gila Woodpecker

  Melanerpes uropygialis (S.F.Baird, 1854) · Aves
  411
• Anna's Hummingbird

  Calypte anna (R.Lesson, 1829) · Aves
  401
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  379

Most recent

• M 2.7 — 2026-07-01
  7 km WNW of Delta, B.C., MX
• M 2.5 — 2026-06-07
  24 km W of Delta, B.C., MX
• M 3.11 — 2026-05-24
  6 km WNW of Delta, B.C., MX
• M 2.61 — 2026-05-23
  6 km WNW of Delta, B.C., MX
• M 2.51 — 2026-05-22
  6 km WNW of Delta, B.C., MX
• M 3.26 — 2026-05-22
  6 km WNW of Delta, B.C., MX