Propagation of high intensity laser beams through long air paths suffering from energy loss and beam quality deterioration was experimentally demonstrated. For linearly polarized, 3 ns flat-topped laser pulse at 1053 nm, when the intensity-path-length product of main laser pulse was above 13.7 TW/cm, the spectrum measured at the end of propagation showed the occurrence of stimulated rotational Raman scattering as frequency shifts from main laser of 1053 nm to the sideband components produced during propagation, corresponds to the transition between rotational states of nitrogen molecules. During the process of stimulated rotational Raman scattering, the energy loss will vary dramatically with even minor changes in the intensity of input laser pulse. Furthermore, the near field degrades to intense speckle pattern and thickly dotted hot spots with characteristic diameters about 1mm were observed at an intensity-length product above 17 TW/cm.