Geographical facts that surprise you (tornado, slum, tropical climate)

[pch1013]

If Greenland were pivoted 180 degrees along its north-south axis, its "southern" tip would be at the same latitude as South Carolina.

[jtur88]

Originally Posted by green_mariner

The island of Madeira, despite being part of Europe and part of Portugal, is actually closer to Morocco's capital(in Africa) than it is to Portugal's capital.

And Spain's Canary Islands are even closer to the capitals of Senegal, Mauritania, Gambia and Guinea Bissau than to Madrid.

[green_mariner]

Sagres, in southern Portugal, is the only place in mainland Europe where frost has never been recorded.

[green_mariner]

The largest inland river delta in the world is in a desert, the Okavango delta, which is in the Kalahari Desert.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by jtur88

And Spain's Canary Islands are even closer to the capitals of Senegal, Mauritania, Gambia and Guinea Bissau than to Madrid.

Palermo, the capital of Sicily, is closer to Tunis, Tunisia than it is to Rome,Italy.

[bentobox34]

If you started in Downtown Boston and headed due south, you would eventually be in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Arica, Chile.

[bentobox34]

Originally Posted by iNviNciBL3

Anchorage Alaska is closer to Vladvistok Russia than it is to New York City.

Why is that surprising? It is pretty obvious from the maps and globes we've all been looking at since grade school that Alaska is much closer to Russia than it is to the rest of the US. In fact it used to be part of Russia.

[bentobox34]

Originally Posted by burloak

tom77falcons is correct.

San Diego to Honolulu is 2560 miles
Los Angeles to Honolulu is 2551 miles
San Francisco to Honolulu is 2396 miles

San Francisco is farther west.

This is one symptom of a more generally surprising aspect of California's geography that many people (including locals) seem unaware of, namely that the entire populated portion of the state is leaning on its left side. So when you go "north" in California you are almost always also going west, and when you go "east" you are often also going north.

For example, this is the point that lies at the same latitude as Los Angeles' city hall, directly due south of San Francisco's city hall. This point is 240 miles west of Los Angeles and 256 miles south of San Francisco. So when you travel from LA to SF you are actually going almost as far west as you go north.

San Diego is east of LA, and Bakersfield is west of LA. San Jose is east of San Francisco, and Sacramento, which you get to by heading "east" on I-80, is further north than east of SF. Past Sacramento I-80 heads due northeast for another 300 miles through Reno (which many have pointed out is west of LA) on to Winnemucca, Nevada, which is north of the far-northern-California town of Arcata, despite being directly "east" of SF as far as the highway system is concerned.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by bentobox34

Why is that surprising? It is pretty obvious from the maps and globes we've all been looking at since grade school that Alaska is much closer to Russia than it is to the rest of the US. In fact it used to be part of Russia.

Actually, Anchorage,Alaska is located closer to northern Honshu island in Japan than it is to New York or Vladivostok.

[Trimac20]

Originally Posted by green_mariner

Sagres, in southern Portugal, is the only place in mainland Europe where frost has never been recorded.

Very interesting.

There are some coastal stations in the Southwest of England with extreme minimums as mild as -4C. Miami has recorded -3C, by comparison.