Florida

I

Introduction

Florida, one of the southern Atlantic coast states of the United States and the southernmost mainland state. It is bordered on the north by Alabama and Georgia; on the east by the Atlantic Ocean; on the south by the Straits of Florida (separating it from Cuba); and on the west by the Gulf of Mexico and Alabama.

Florida entered the Union on March 3, 1845, as the 27th state. It was a member of the Confederacy during the American Civil War (1861-1865). Florida’s main economic growth began in the early 20th century, and by the 1990s it had a diversified economy, noted especially for the production of citrus fruit, vegetables, and electronic equipment. Millions of tourists visit the state each year, lured by the warm, sunny climate and attractions such as Walt Disney World near Orlando and the John F. Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. Florida’s population nearly trebled between 1960 and 1990, many of the new inhabitants being retired people from other parts of the United States and immigrants from Caribbean countries. In 1513 the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León named the region Florida (Spanish, “flowery”), either because the vegetation included many flowers or because the time of his visit was Easter week (Spanish, Pascua florida). Florida is known as the “Sunshine State”.

II

Land and Resources

Florida has an area of 155,368 sq km (59,988 sq mi). Florida is mainly a large peninsula that extends about 610 km (380 mi) between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. Much of the rest of the state forms the narrow Panhandle between Georgia and Alabama on the north and the Gulf of Mexico on the south. The extreme dimensions of Florida, which has a coastline of 2,173 km (1,350 mi), are about 725 km (450 mi) from north to south and about 738 km (471 mi) from east to west.

A

Physical Geography

All of Florida except the Panhandle is part of the large Atlantic Coastal Plain, which forms most of the eastern coast of the United States. A central belt of hills extends southward on the peninsula almost as far as Lake Okeechobee, but otherwise the peninsula is flat, particularly south of the lake. Marshes and swamps are common in the flat areas; Big Cypress Swamp and the Everglades cover much of the southern part of the state. Islands, coral reefs, and sandbars extend along almost the entire Atlantic coast and are separated from the mainland by narrow lagoons, which are known as lakes or rivers in some places. Three groups of small islands, the Florida Keys (including Key Largo and Key West), the Marquesas Keys, and the Dry Tortugas, make up the southernmost portion of the state.

The Panhandle region is a small section of the East Gulf Coastal Plain, which extends into Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and other states.

Florida has only four major rivers, all in the northern part of the state: the Apalachicola (the largest in flow), the Suwannee, the St Johns (the longest) and the Escambia. The Indian River, which stretches for some 210 km (130 mi) along the eastern coast of Florida, is not a true river but a long lagoon of brackish water behind a line of offshore islands.

B

Climate

Almost all of Florida has a humid subtropical climate. However, the southern end of the state and particularly the small islands south of the peninsula have a tropical wet and dry climate similar to that of Central America. The average annual temperature at Tallahassee, in the north-west, is 20° C (68° F), and at Fort Lauderdale, in the south-east, 25° C (77° F). Recorded temperatures in Florida have ranged from -18.9° C (-2° F), at Tallahassee in 1899, to 42.8° C (109° F), at Monticello in 1931. Parts of Florida, especially in the south, are sometimes endangered in the summer and autumn by hurricanes travelling across the Atlantic Ocean.