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Indiana, IN

The State of Indiana is the 19th U.S. state and
is located in the midwestern region of the United States of
America. With about 6.3 million residents, it is ranked 14th
in population and 17th in population density.
Indiana is ranked 38th in land area. Indiana is
a diverse state with a few large urban areas and a number of
smaller industrial cities.
It is known for the Indianapolis 500 automobile
race, held annually over the Memorial Day weekend, and a
strong basketball tradition, often called Hoosier Hysteria.
Residents of Indiana are called Hoosiers.
There are several ideas about the origin of the
name. Linguists have traced it to England, where in one
dialect it meant "farmer."
Others have traced it to the Indiana workers
who crossed the Ohio River to work for Sam Hoosier during
construction of the Louisville and Portland Canal; these
workers were known as "Hoosier's Men."
Another story told to Indiana youths is that in
the early 1800s, bar fights would break out in Indiana
saloons, with many a man losing an ear. Someone would pick it
up and ask "Whose ear?", which somehow evolved into Hoosier.
The state's name means "Land of the Indians"
and Angel Mounds State Historic Site, one of the best
preserved prehistoric Native American sites in the United
States, can be found in southern Indiana near Evansville.
Geography
Indiana is bounded on the north by Lake
Michigan and the state of Michigan; on the east by Ohio; on
the south by Kentucky, with which it shares the Ohio River as
a border; and on the west by Illinois.
Indiana is one of the Great Lakes states. The
northern boundary of the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois
was originally defined to be a latitudinal line drawn through
the southernmost tip of Lake Michigan.
Since such a line would not provide Indiana
with usable frontage on the lake, its northern border was
shifted ten miles (16 km) north.
The northern borders of Ohio and Illinois were
also shifted from this original plan.
The 475 mile (764 km) long Wabash River bisects
the state from northeast to southwest and has given Indiana a
few theme songs, On the Banks of the Wabash, The Wabash
Cannonball and Back Home Again, In Indiana.
The Wabash is also the longest free-flowing
river east of the Mississippi; 400 miles (640 km) from the
Huntington dam to the Ohio River.
The White River (a tributary of the Wabash,
which is a tributary of the Ohio) zigzags through central
Indiana. There are 24 Indiana state parks, nine man-made
reservoirs, and hundreds of lakes in the state.
Climate
Most of Indiana has a humid continental climate
(Koppen climate classification Dfa), with hot, humid summers
and cool to cold winters.
The extreme southern portions of the state
border on a humid subtropical climate (Koppen Cfa) with
somewhat milder winters. Summertime maximum temperatures
average around 85 °F (29 °C) with cooler nights around 60 °F
(16 °C).
Winters are a little more variable, but
generally cool to cold temperatures with all but the northern
part of the state averaging above freezing for the maximum
January temperature, and the minimum temperature below 20 °F
(-8 °C) for most of the state.
The state receives a good amount of
precipitation, 40 inches (1,000 mm) annually statewide, in all
four seasons, with March through August being slightly wetter.
The state does have its share of severe weather, both winter
storms and thunderstorms.
While generally not receiving as much snow as
some states farther north, the state does have occasional
blizzards, some due to lake effect snow.
The state averages around 40-50 days of
thunderstorms per year, with March and April being the period
of most severe storms.
While not considered part of Tornado Alley,
Indiana is the Great Lakes state which is most vulnerable to
tornadic activity.
In fact, three of the most severe tornado
outbreaks in U.S. history affected Indiana, the Tri-State
Tornado of 1925, the Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1965 and
the Super Outbreak of 1974.
The Evansville Tornado of November 2005 killed
25 people, 20 people in Vanderburgh County and 5 in Warrick
County.
This article is licensed under
the
GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the
Wikipedia
article "Indiana".
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