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Note: Alaska and Hawaii are shown out of
position for reference only and are not to scale.
Blank
Arkansas State Outline Map
The
Mississippi River
forms most of Arkansas' eastern border, except in
Clay and
Greene
counties where the St.
Francis River forms the western boundary of the
Missouri Bootheel,
and in dozens of places where the current channel of
the Mississippi has meandered from where it had last
been legally specified. Arkansas shares its southern
border with Louisiana, its
northern border with Missouri,
its eastern border with
Tennessee and Mississippi,
and its western border with Texas
and Oklahoma.
Arkansas is
a land of mountains and valleys, thick forests and fertile
plains. Northwest Arkansas is part of the
Ozark Plateau including the
Boston Mountains, to the
south are the Ouachita
Mountains and these regions are divided by the
Arkansas River; the southern
and eastern parts of Arkansas are called the Lowlands. All
of these mountains ranges are part of the
U.S. Interior Highlands
region, the only major mountainous region between the
Rocky Mountains and the
Appalachian Mountains.
The
so-called Lowlands are better known by names of their two
regions, the Delta and
the Grand Prairie. The Arkansas Delta is a flat landscape of
rich alluvial soils formed by
repeated flooding of the adjacent Mississippi. Further
away from the river, in the southeast portion of the state,
the Grand Prairie consists of a more undulating landscape.
Both are fertile agricultural areas.
The Delta
region is bisected by an unusual geological formation known
as Crowley's Ridge. A narrow
band of rolling hills, Crowley's Ridge rises from 250 to 500
feet above the surrounding alluvial plain and underlies many
of the major towns of eastern Arkansas.
Arkansas is
home to many caves,
such as Blanchard
Springs Caverns. It is also the first U.S. state in
which diamonds were found (near
Murfreesboro).
Arkansas is
home to many areas protected by the
National Park System.
These include:
The
Trail of Tears National
Historic Trail also runs through Arkansas.
Climate
Arkansas
generally has a humid
subtropical climate, which borders on
humid continental
in some northern highland areas. While not bordering the
Gulf of Mexico, Arkansas is
still close enough to this warm, large body of water for it
to be the main weather influence in the state. Generally,
Arkansas has very hot, humid summers and mild, slightly
drier winters. In Little Rock, the daily high temperatures
average around 90 °F (32 °C) in the summer and close to 50
°F (10 °C) in winter. Annual precipitation throughout the
state averages between 40 and 50 inches (1,000 to 1,250 mm);
getting gradually wetter as you go from west to east.
Snowfall is not uncommon, but certainly not excessive in
most years as the average snowfall is around 5 inches (13
cm).
Despite its
subtropical climate, Arkansas is known for occasional
extreme weather. Between both the
Great Plains and the Gulf States,
Arkansas receives around 60 days of thunderstorms. As a part
of Tornado Alley, tornadoes are
not an uncommon occurrence in Arkansas, and a few of the
most destructive tornadoes in U.S. history have struck the
state. While being sufficiently away from the coast to be
safe from a direct hit from a hurricane, Arkansas can often
get the remnants of a tropical
system which dumps tremendous amounts of rain in a short
time and often spawns smaller tornadoes.
Interactive Arkansas State Map
Explore the state of Arkansas with the dynamic map below. You can
zoom, pan and even get a satellite map view.
Move your cursor over the markers on the map to
learn more about Arkansas.
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