Southeast Region of the United States of America | |
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Region | |
Southeastern United States | |
Dark red states are usually included in definitions of the Southeastern United States. Light red states are considered "Southeastern" with less frequency. |
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Area | |
• Total | 1,504,360 km2 (580,835 sq mi) |
• Land | 1,399,920 km2 (540,511 sq mi) |
• Water | 104,440 km2 (40,324 sq mi) 6.9% |
Population (2013) | |
• Total | 87,438,243 |
• Density | 58.1/km2 (150.5/sq mi) |
Time zone | EST/CST |
• Summer (DST) | EDT/CDT (UTC) |
The Southeastern United States is the eastern portion of the Southern United States, and the southern portion of the Eastern United States. It comprises 14 states in the southern United States.
There is no official Census Bureau definition of the southeastern United States. However, the American Association of Geographers defines the southeastern United States as Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. The OSBO uses the same states, but includes Arkansas and Louisiana.
The most populous state in the region is Florida (20,612,439), followed by Georgia (10,310,371) and North Carolina (10,146,788).
The predominant culture of the Southeast has its origins with the settlement of the region by British colonists and African slaves in the 17th century, as well as large groups of English, Scots and Ulster-Scots, Germans, French, and Acadians in succeeding centuries.
The southeastern part of the United States is dominated by different varieties of the humid subtropical climate, but southern Florida such as the Miami metropolitan area has a tropical monsoon climate due to the significantly warmer winters. Summers are generally very hot throughout the entire region with relatively small temperature differences for July throughout the region, as proven by Miami's July high being 90.9 °F (32.7 °C), compared to Virginia Beach recording close to 88 °F (31 °C) on average that time of the year. With tropical air masses influencing the region, precipitation is high throughout the year, and unlike more westerly areas at similar latitudes, the Southeast is lush with vegetation. The tropical air masses do however cause significant hurricanes such as Hurricane Andrew (1992) and Hurricane Katrina (2005) wreaking havoc and causing significant damage to coastal areas. The winters highly vary depending on latitude and elevation. For example, Jacksonville in northern Florida has an average low of 41 °F (5 °C) in January, only seeing snow a few times a decade while Richmond, Virginia, has an average low of 25 °F (−4 °C) in January and sees snow several times per year.