The State of Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. The capital of Louisiana is Baton Rouge. The largest city and metropolitan area is New Orleans. The largest parish by population is Jefferson Parish, and the largest by land area is Cameron Parish. Louisiana is the only state divided into parishes, which are local government equivalent to counties.
Some Louisiana urban environments have a multicultural, multilingual heritage, strongly influenced by a mixture of 18th century French, Spanish and African cultures. Before the American influx and statehood at the beginning of the 19th century, the territory of current Louisiana State had been a Spanish and French colony.
Louisiana is bordered to the west by the state of Texas; to the north by Arkansas; to the east by the state of Mississippi; and to the south by the Gulf of Mexico.
The surface of the state may properly be divided into two parts, the uplands and the alluvial, including coast and swamp regions. The alluvial regions, including the low swamps and coast lands, cover an area of about 20,000 square miles. They lie principally along the Mississippi River, which traverses the state from north to south for a distance of about 600 miles and empties into the Gulf of Mexico. The breadth of the alluvial region along the Mississippi is from 10 to 60 miles and along the other rivers, it averages about 10 miles across. The Mississippi River flows upon a ridge formed by its own deposits, from which the lands decline toward the low swamps beyond at an average fall of six feet per mile. The alluvial lands along other streams present similar features.
The higher lands and contiguous hill lands of the north and north western part of the state have an area of more than 25,000 square miles. They consist of prairie and woodlands. The elevations above sea level range from 10 feet at the coast and swamp lands to 50 and 60 feet at the prairie and alluvial lands. In the uplands and hills, the elevations rise to Driskill Mountain, the highest point in the state at only 535 feet above sea level.
Besides the navigable rivers already named (some of which are called bayous), there are the Sabine, forming the western boundary; and the Pearl, the eastern boundary; the Calcasieu, the Mermentau, the Vermilion, the Teche, the Atchafalaya, the Boeuf, the Lafourche, the Courtableau, the D'Arbonne, the Macon, the Tensas , the Amite, the Tchefuncte, the Tickfaw, the Natalbany and a number of other streams which make up a natural system of navigable waterways of over 4,000 miles in length. These waterways are unequalled in any other state of the nation. The state also has 1,060 square miles of land-locked bays and 1,700 square miles of inland lakes.
Louisiana has a humid subtropical climate with long, hot, humid summers and short, mild winters. The subtropical characteristics of the state are due in large part to the influence of the Gulf of Mexico, which even at its farthest point is no more than 200 miles (320 km) away. Precipitation is frequent throughout the year, although the summer is slightly wetter than the rest of the year. There is a dip in precipitation in October. Southern Louisiana receives far more copious rainfall, especially during the winter months. Summers in Louisiana are hot and humid, with high temperatures from mid-June to mid-September averaging 90 °F (32 °C) or more and overnight lows averaging above 70 °F (22 °C). In the summer, the extreme maximum temperature is much warmer in the north than in the south, with temperatures near the Gulf of Mexico occasionally reaching 100 °F (38 °C), although temperatures above 95 °F (35 °C) are commonplace. In northern Louisiana, the temperatures reach above 105 °F (41 °C) in the summer.
Temperatures are generally mildly warm in the winter in the southern part of the state, with highs around New Orleans, Baton Rouge, the rest of south Louisiana, and the Gulf of Mexico averaging 66 °F (19 °C), while the northern part of the state is mildly cool in the winter with highs averaging 59 °F (15 °C). The overnight lows in the winter average well above freezing throughout the state, with 46 °F (8 °C) the average near the Gulf and an average low of 37 °F (3 °C) in the winter in the northern part of the state. Louisiana does have its share of cold fronts, which frequently drop the temperatures below 20 °F (-8 °C) in the northern part of the state, but almost never do so in the southern part of the state. Snow is not very common near the Gulf of Mexico, although those in the northern parts of the state can expect one to three snowfalls per year, with the frequency increasing northwards.
Louisiana is often affected by tropical cyclones and is very vulnerable to strikes by major hurricanes, particularly the lowlands around and in the New Orleans area. The unique geography of the region with the many bayous, marshes and inlets can make major hurricanes especially destructive. The area is also prone to frequent thunderstorms, especially in the summer. The entire state averages over 60 days of thunderstorms a year averaging more thunderstorms than any other state except Florida. Louisiana averages 27 tornadoes annually. The entire state is vulnerable to a tornado strike, with the extreme southern portion of the state slightly less than the rest of the state. Tornadoes are much more common from January to March in the southern part of the state, and from February through March in the northern part of the state.
Text from Wikipedia Louisiana where additional general information can be found. Please share your knowledge by editing the pages of Wikitravel.
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