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Maryland is located on the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. It contains 9,775 square miles (25,317 square kilometers or 2,531,713 hectares) of land, and 2,633 square miles (6,819 square kilometers or 681,944 hectares) covered by water. The state’s total area of 12,407 square miles (32,134 square kilometers or 3,213,398 hectares) makes it the 42nd largest among the United States. The state is bordered to the north by Pennsylvania, the Chesapeake Bay and Virginia to the south, Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to the north and east, and to the west by West Virginia and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay divides Maryland into the East Shore, comprising the Delmarva Peninsula, and the West Shore of the Bay.
Maryland is divided geographically into five land areas: the Atlantic Coastal Plain, the Piedmont, the Blue Ridge Region, the Appalachian Ridge and Valley, and the Appalachian Plateau. Maryland’s highest point, at 3,360 feet (1.02 kilometers) above sea level, is Hoye-Crest on Backbone Mountain.
Maryland’s climate is influenced by its location along the Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay as well as its western uplands. Its middle latitude location lends the state a variable climate of four seasons, yet it remains generally moderate overall. Summers range from warm to hot with temperatures averaging at least 85 degrees F (29.4 degrees C) in July. The lowest temperatures occur in January and average around 25 degrees F (3.9 degrees C). Maryland receives an average of 40.76 inches (103.5 centimeters) of rain per year, peaking in July and August with thunderstorms. Maryland’s annual snowfall average is 20.6 inches (52.3 centimeters). Maryland occasionally is influenced by winter storms called "northeasters" and by seasonal hurricanes.
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