Alabama

I

Introduction

Alabama, one of the southern states of the United States, bordered on the north by Tennessee; on the east by Georgia; on the south by Florida and the Gulf of Mexico; and on the west by Mississippi.

Called the “Heart of Dixie”, Alabama entered the Union on December 14, 1819, as the 22nd state. In 1861 it became a founding member of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. Alabama’s economy was long dominated by farming and cotton cultivation, but by the 1990s manufacturing, government, and services were the chief economic sectors. The name of the state is taken from the Alabama River, which was named after the Alabama, or Alibamon, people, who belonged to the Creek confederacy.

II

Land and Resources

The 30th largest state in the United States, Alabama has an area of 135,293 sq km (52,237 sq mi) and is roughly rectangular in shape; its extreme dimensions are 533 km (331 mi) from north to south and 338 km (210 mi) from east to west.

A

Physical Geography

The state comprises the East Gulf Coastal Plain in the south and north-west; the Black Belt in the centre, and the Cumberland Plateau in the north. Soils are mainly clays and sandy clays, though there are also limestone-derived dark clays, limestone, alluvium and swamp, and marshland. Major mountains include Lookout, Colvin, and Talladega, and the Beaver Creek range.

Main rivers include the Mobile, Alabama, Tombigbee, Chattahoochee, and Tensaw. Principal tributaries of the Alabama River include the Coosa, Tallapoosa, and Cahaba rivers; and the Black Warrior River is the chief affluent of the Tombigbee River. Alabama’s large lakes include Lakes Guntersville, Wheeler, and Wilson, on the Tennessee River; Weiss Lake, on the Coosa River; and Walter F. George Reservoir, on the Chattahoochee River.

B

Climate

The average annual temperature ranges from 15.6° C (60° F) in the north to about 21.1° C (about 70° F) near the Gulf of Mexico. Recorded temperatures in the state have ranged from -32.7° C (-27° F), in 1966, to 44.4° C (112° F), in 1925, although very low or very high temperatures are unusual. The area near the Gulf is subject to occasional hurricanes in the summer months.