A Sense of PlaceMississippi StudiesUnit I

Mississippi’s Natural EnvironmentClimate and Water Resources

Chapter 1

Chapter 1 Terms• Location• Place• Human-environment

interaction• Movement• Region• Latitude• Longitude• Global Positioning System

(GPS)

• Natural environment• Climate• Weather• Precipitation• Tornado• Hurricane• Hydrologic cycle• Surface water• Ground water• Aquifer• Drainage basin

The Five Themes of Geography• Location - can be either absolute or relative• Place - its “sense” is determined by physical and

cultural characteristics• Human-environment interaction - how

humans use, adapt to, and change the environment

• Movement - concerns the ways people are linked with regions, cultures, and people beyond their immediate environment

• Regions - the world can be divided into these either by using natural or cultural characteristics

Mississippi’s Geographic Regions•Delta—Northwest Mississippi•Hills—Central and North Mississippi•Piney Woods—Southern Mississippi (We

live here)•Gulf Coast—a narrow strip of land

bordering the Gulf of Mexico

Location•Relative Location: describes where a place

is compared to other places.•Mississippi’s relative locations:

▫It is bordered on the east by Alabama, by Tennessee on the north, and by Arkansas and Louisiana on the West

▫Two bodies of water also border Mississippi Gulf of Mexico to the South Mississippi River to the West

▫350 miles long from north to south and 180 miles wide from east to west

Mississippi Relative Locations

Location (continued)• Absolute Location: precise position on Earth’s

surface.▫Latitude: distance north or south from equator▫Longitude: distance east or west from the prime

meridian at Greenwich, England.▫Mississippi lies between 30 and 35 degrees north

latitude and between 88 and 91 degrees west longitude

▫Global Positioning System (GPS): helps us determine the precise location of a place Used by companies and individuals to locate places

or determine where they are

Natural Environment• Includes such elements as climate, water,

landforms, soil, energy and mineral resources, vegetation, and wildlife.

•Four spheres of earth▫Atmosphere: blanket or air that surrounds the

Earth’s surface▫Lithosphere: outermost shell of the solid earth▫Hydrosphere: contains all the water that exists

on and within the solid surface of Earth▫Biosphere: contains all the regions that support

the Earth’s living things

Climate

•Mississippi’s climate is a humid subtropical one.▫Humid throughout the year and receive

ample amount of rainfall▫Summers are warm and hot; winters are

cool•Climate: long-term average or weather

(temperature and rainfall)•Weather: day-to-day conditions and

changes in the atmosphere for temperature, rainfall, wind, cloudiness, humidity, and air pressure

Climate in Mississippi• Mississippi’s climate attracts tourists in the winter for year-

round activities such as fishing and golfing and its beaches• Temperature in Mississippi

▫ Annual average temperature: 62 degrees Fahrenheit Lowest recorded: January 1966, Corinth (-19 degrees) Highest recorded: July 1930, Holly Springs (115 degrees)

▫ Summer Average Temperature: 81 degrees 70 to 100 days over 90 degrees each year

▫ Winter January is coldest month Average temperature 43 to 48 degrees in northern half; 48 to 53

degrees in southern half▫ More than 220 frost free days a year (good for agriculture)

Climate in Mississippi (continued)•Precipitation in Mississippi

▫Precipitation: rain, snow, sleet▫Mississippi’s average annual precipitation

is 52 inches (about 15 inches in winter and spring; 13 inches in summer, and 9 inches in fall)

▫Snow is very seldom in Mississippi▫Humidity is the ratio of moisture in the air.

The average relative humidity ranges from 76% (coast) and 70% (north). Humidity makes summers somewhat oppressive

Natural Hazards• Thunderstorms: can result in flash floods, which can

cause property and crop damage and occasionally result in death

• Lightning: 295 people killed or injured between 1959 and 1994

• Tornadoes: ▫generally occur during the spring and early summer

when warm moist air moving northward from the Gulf of Mexico meets colder air coming from the interior United States

▫Move counterclockwise and can reach speeds of up to 300 miles an hour

▫Usually travel in a southwest-to-northeast direction

TornadoesTornado Video

Natural Hazards (continued)•Hurricanes

▫storms that arise in the tropical Atlantic Ocean and cover hundreds of square miles.

▫Hurricane season is from June to October▫Storm becomes a Hurricane when winds are 74

miles an hour▫Hurricane Camille—August 1969—worst

hurricane to ever land in costal Mississippi▫Hurricane Katrina—August 2005—caused more

damage in Mississippi than any other hurricane on record (made landfall in New Orleans, LA)

Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale

Water Resources

Why is water important?

•It is vital to life•We drink it•We clean with it•We irrigate our crops with it•We transport goods on it•We generate electricity with it•We use it in our households and industries

Hydrologic Cycle

Rivers

•Mississippi River▫Forms Mississippi’s western border▫Drains the interior United States from the

Appalachian Mountains to the Rocky Mountains

Mississippi River

Rivers (continued)• Mississippi has nine major and two minor river systems.• Major River Systems that flow into the Mississippi River:

▫ Yazoo River▫ Big Black River▫ Bayou Pierre-Coles Creek▫ Homochitto River

• River Systems that flow south:▫ Noxubee-Tombigbee Rivers▫ Pearl River▫ Amite River▫ Pascagoula River▫ Biloxi-Wolf-Jourdan Rivers

Rivers (continued)

•Minor River systems:▫Yellow Creek (flows north into Tenn.)▫Mississippi River

Tuscumbia Hatchie

Reservoirs

•Pickwick Lake on the Tennessee River•Arkabutla Lake near Coldwater•Sardis Lake near Oxford•Enid Lake in Yalobusha County•Grenada Lake in Grenada•Ross Barnett Reservoir to the east of

Jackson

•Most were build to assist in flood control in the Delta