Philadelphia, PA: Geography and Climate

Topography

Philadelphia is a city in the Pennsylvania state with 135.1 square miles of land and 7.6 square miles of water, totalling to an area of 142.6 square miles. The main bodies of water are the Delaware river, Schuylkill river, Cobbs creek, Wissahickon creek, and the Pennypack creek. The lowest point in Philly is 10 feet above sea level while Chestnut Hill takes the spot for highest point at 445 feet above sea level. The city can be found between the Atlantic Coastal Plain and the Piedmont.

City Plan

The central city of Philadelphia was created sometime in the 17th century. It consists of long and straight streets from east to west and north to south, forming something like a grid pattern. This was originally designed that way to make traveling easy and to keep residential properties separated from each other. The separation are open spaces to help prevent fire from spreading from one house to another. This design was developed by William Penn and his surveyor, Thomas Holme.

The neighborhoods are divided into:

• North Philadelphia
• Northeast Philadelphia
• Northwest Philadelphia
• West Philadelphia
• South Philadelphia
• Southwest Philadelphia

Climate

Philadelphia has a climate classified as humid subtropical. This means that summers are hot and humid, autumn and spring are mostly mild, and winter season is cold. Snowfall is not consistent every winter. It ranges from light snow to major snowstorms. A snow cover is rare and it is rare for snow to fall during the months of April and November. The heaviest snowfall was recorded in January 1996 at 30.7 inches.

Rainfall falls any month of the year, with an average of 12 rain days per month. The most rain fell on July 28, 2013 with a reading of 8.02 inches of rainfall at the Philadelphia International Airport.

With regards to temperature, the highest temperature was recorded on August 7, 1918 at 106 °F or 41 °C, whereas the lowest was on February 9, 1934 with a reading of -11 °F or -24 °C. Since then, however, temperatures never went down past the 0 °F mark.

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