Weather and Climate

Virtually every type of climate can be found somewhere in the United States – from arctic in Alaska to subtropical in Florida. The climate is not generally temperate, despite the latitude, because the tremendous size of the North American land mass heightens the extreme variations in temperature and precipitation, especially in the central regions.

Most of the country has a humid continental climate with hot summers and cold winters, while the lack of natural barriers either to the north or south allows cold, dry air to flow south from Canada and warm, humid air north from the Gulf of Mexico, giving rise to spectacular weather of every possible type in the Great Plains and Midwest. Summers are hot and very humid in this region and rainfall decreases to the west as a result of the rain shadow created by the West Pacific Range and the Sierra Nevada. The southwest portion of the Great Plains is the hottest and most arid region of the United States, with precipitation, mostly in the form of summer showers, averaging less than 250 mm a year.

The Pacific coast is almost rainless in the summer, although there is often fog. In winter there is frequent drizzle, but the climate remains generally warm and dry, especially in California.

The eastern part of the country is moderately rainy, with the precipitation fairly well distributed throughout the year. Summers tend to be extremely humid, especially along the coast of Texas and Florida.

Natural Resources

The United States possesses vast non-fuel natural resources. The major resource is iron, three quarters of which comes from the Lake Superior region of the Great Lakes. Other basic metals and minerals mined on a large scale are zinc, silver and phosphate rock. This wealth is distributed throughout most of the country, but Texas and the West (especially California) are the most important mineral-producing areas. Mining and quarrying account for only about 2 % of GNP.

The United States produces one quarter of the world’s coal and one seventh of its petroleum, with sufficient coal reserves to last for hundreds of years. About half of the nation’s electric power comes from coal-fired power stations, while natural and manufactured gas supply more than 33 % of the nation’s power. The main gas fields are found near the main oil fields in Texas, Louisiana and Alaska. Nuclear power is also used in many places, using uranium mined in New Mexico and Wyoming, and produces over 10 % of the nation’s energy output.

Natural Parks

No nation had ever done anything like that, the very idea of the Federal Government’s setting aside a portion of the public domain in the Rocky Mountains for use as a national ‘pleasuring ground’ instead of for private exploitation by farmers, ranchers, or miners had a faintly improper ring, particularly in the ‘robber baron’ era of unbridled private enterprise following the Civil War.

Nevertheless, depictions by artists and photographers, and the reports of official survey teams all pointed to one inevitable conclusion: that the Yellowstone region of the Rockies was of such exceptional beauty, such awe-aspiring dimensions, that this sublime gift of nature was a natural treasure, far too valuable for private development, and that it must belong in perpetuity to the entire American people.

Accordingly, Congress passed and President Grant signed legislation establishing Yellowstone National Park, which over the years has been extended to take in 2.2 million acres of breathtakingly beautiful country in Idaho, Montana, and – mainly – Wyoming. Yellowstone became the first reserve of its kind in the world and the model for US national park system.

Almost two decades passed before new national parks were created, and then, in 1890, Sequoia and Yosemite were both established in California. Subsequently, the pace quickened, particularly during Theodore Roosevelt’s conservation-minded administration, when eight new national parks were established.

Today there are 38 national parks, most of them in the West, covering more than 14 million acres. Additional millions of acres have been set aside as national monuments, national recreation areas, national forests and national seashores. Within those sanctuaries millions of vacationing Americans each year enjoy days or weeks of relaxation amid nature’s most impressive splendors – preserved by man for posterity.

Control Questions:

1.Name 50 states of the United States of America.

2.What are the main natural resources of each state of the USA?

3. What are the biggest rivers of the United States?

4. Name the trees which prevail in the United States.

5. What kind of birds live in the United States?

6. Why were the national perks established?

7. Name the most popular and the biggest national parks.

8. Where is the USA situated?

9. What countries does the USA boder on?

10. What are the highest mountains of the country?

11. What can you say about the climate of the country?