Sample · Phoenix, Arizona · 1984 – 2024
From farmland to fifth-largest U.S. city
In 1984 Phoenix was ringed by 1,600 km² of irrigated cotton and citrus farms. Forty years of suburban growth driven by air conditioning, cheap water from the Central Arizona Project, and sun-belt migration replaced almost three quarters of that farmland with subdivisions and freeways. Today the city is the fifth-largest in the United States — and the fastest-warming.
- Population +1.7M
- Built area +340%
- Avg. summer temp +1.4°C











