United States

:For other uses, see US (disambiguation), USA (disambiguation), and United States (disambiguation).

Geography and climate

As the world's third-largest country after Russia and Canada, with a total area of 3,537,441 square miles (9,161,930 sq km), the United States contains a considerable variety of landscape: temperate forestland and rolling hills on the east coast, mangrove in Florida, the great plains in the center of the country, the Mississippi-Missouri river system, the Great Lakes (shared with Canada), the Rocky Mountains west of the plains, deserts and temperate coastal zones west of the Rocky Mountains and temperate rain forests in the Pacific northwest. Alaska's tundra and the volcanic, tropical islands of Hawaii add to the geographic diversity.

Related Topics:
Mangrove - Florida - Great plains - Mississippi - Missouri - Great Lakes - Rocky Mountains - Temperate rain forests - Alaska - Tundra - Volcanic - Tropical - Hawaii

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The climate varies along with the landscape, from tropical in Hawaii and southern Florida to tundra in Alaska and atop some of the highest mountains. Most of the North and East experience a temperate continental climate, with warm summers and cold winters. Most of the American South experiences a subtropical humid climate with mild winters and long, hot, humid summers. Rainfall decreases markedly from the humid forests of the Eastern Great Plains to the semi-arid shortgrass prairies on the high plains abutting the Rocky Mountains. Arid deserts, including the Mojave, extend through the lowlands and valleys of the southwest, from westernmost Texas to California and northward throughout much of Nevada. Some parts of California have a Mediterranean climate. Rainforests line the windward mountains of the Pacific Northwest from Oregon to Alaska.

Related Topics:
Hawaii - Florida - Tundra - Alaska - Mojave - Nevada - California - Mediterranean climate

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