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Note: Alaska and Hawaii are shown out of
position for reference only and are not to scale.
Blank
Mississippi State Outline Map
Mississippi is bordered on the north by the state of
Tennessee, on the east by
Alabama, on the south by
Louisiana and the
Gulf of Mexico, and on
the west by Louisiana and
Arkansas (across the
Mississippi River).
Major
rivers include Mississippi
River, Big Black River,
Pearl River,
Yazoo River,
Pascagoula River, and
Tombigbee River. Major lakes
include Ross Barnett
Reservoir, Arkabutla Lake,
Sardis Lake, and
Grenada Lake.
The highest
point in Mississippi, part of the
foothills of the
Cumberland Mountains is
Woodall Mountain. Hardly a mountain,
Woodall Mountain is only 806
feet (246 m) above sea
level. The lowest point is along the shore at the Gulf of
Mexico; sea level. The Mean Elevation is 300 feet (91 m)
above sea level.
Most of
Mississippi is part of the
East Gulf
Coastal Plain, and the rest of the state is made up of a
section of the
Mississippi Alluvial Plain. The East Gulf Coastal Plain
is generally composed of low hills, such as the Pine Hills
in the south and the North Central Hills. Somewhat higher
elevations are in the
Pontotoc Ridge and the Fall Line Hills in the northeast.
Yellow-brown loess soil is in the west,
and a region of fertile black earth, part of the
Black Belt, is
in the northeast. The coastline, which includes large bays
at Bay Saint Louis,
Biloxi, and
Pascagoula, is
separated from the Gulf of Mexico proper by the shallow
Mississippi Sound, which is
partially enclosed by Petit Bois, Horn, Ship, and Cat
islands. The Mississippi Alluvial Plain, known also as the
Mississippi Delta, is
narrow in the south and widens north of
Vicksburg. The region
has rich soil, partly made up of silt deposited by
floodwaters of the Mississippi
River.
Areas under
the management of the
National Park Service include:
Climate
Mississippi
has a warm humid
subtropical climate with long summers and short, mild
winters. Temperatures average about 82 °F
(about 28 °C) in July and about 48 °F
(about 9 °C) in January. The temperature varies little
across the state in summer, but in winter the region near
Mississippi Sound is significantly warmer than most of the
rest of the state. The recorded temperature in Mississippi
has ranged from -19 °F (-28.3 °C), in 1966, at
Corinth in the
northeast, to 115 °F (46.1 °C), in 1930, at
Holly Springs in
the north. Yearly
precipitation generally increases from north to south.
Thus, Clarksdale, in
the northwest, gets about 50 inches
(about 1,270 mm) of
precipitation
annually and Biloxi, in
the south, about 61 inches (about 1,550 mm). Small amounts
of snow fall in northern and central
Mississippi, although snow is not unheard of around the
southern part of the state.
In the late
summer and the fall, the state
(especially the southern part) is often affected by
hurricanes moving north from the
Gulf of Mexico, and occasionally impacted by major
hurricanes, which can be quite devastating in coastal
communities. Thunderstorms are common in Mississippi,
especially in the southern part of the state. On average,
Mississippi has around 27 tornadoes annually with the
northern part of the state more vulnerable earlier in the
year and the southern part becoming more vulnerable a little
later.
Ecology
Mississippi
is heavily forested, with over half of the state's area
covered by wild trees (mostly pine trees,
but Mississippi has an abundance of other trees) (cottonwood,
elm, hickory,
oak, pecan,
sweet gum, and
tupelo). Lumber is a prevalent industry in Mississippi.
Interactive Mississippi State Map
Explore the state of Mississippi 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 Mississippi.
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