Climate

THE RIVERS AND LAKES

The Mississippi is world’s third longest river after the Nile in Africa and the Amazon in South America. It’s like 6,5OO km.

The major tributaries [ ] (приток) of the Mississippi River are: the Missouri River, the Ohio River, the Arkansas River and the Red River.

The Mississippi empties out into the Atlantic.

The 2 greatest rivers of the Pacific are The Colorado in the South and The Columbia in the North. The Rio Grande is the most important river of the southwest.

LAKES

There’s a large group of lakes in the USA called the Great lakes:

Only Lake Michigan lies entirely inside the US.

The other 4: Lake Superior, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario form a natural border between northeastern US and Canada.

CLIMATE

The Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Cascade are so close to the west coast that they catch the largest amount of rain from the Pacific Ocean before it can further inland. That’s why the intermontane region is so dry and depends on irrigation water from the snows or rains that are caught by the mountains. So the whole western part of the USA lies in the “rain shadow”

50-centimetre rainfall line runs through the middle of the country: east of the line farming is easy and there’s enough rain. West of the line, irrigation systems and dry-farming.

The western coast

The temperature changes little between winter and summer.

In the north central part of the country

The temperature difference between winter and summer is very great: winters are very cold and summers are very hot.

The eastern part of the country

The difference between summer and winter is distinct but not extreme.

In the south-eastern corner of the country the climate is mild and moist, summers are hot and humid (влажный).

Southern Florida – tropical moist climate. The growing season is all year long.

Alaska – arctic climate. Hawaii – tropics.