1. Chapter 1: Sections 1 and 2 Mississippi Studies Unit I
A Sense of Place
Mississippi Studies
Unit I
Mississippi Studies

2. Mississippi’s Natural Environment
Climate and Water Resources
Chapter 1

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. Mississippi Relative Locations

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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)

12. 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

13. 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 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

14. Tornadoes
Tornado Video

15. 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)

16. Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale

17. Water Resources

18. 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

19. Hydrologic Cycle

20. Rivers Mississippi River Forms Mississippi’s western border
Drains the interior United States from the Appalachian Mountains to the Rocky Mountains

21. Mississippi River

22. 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

23. Rivers (continued) Minor River systems:
Yellow Creek (flows north into Tenn.)
Mississippi River
Tuscumbia
Hatchie

24. 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