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".