Chapter 12 – The Great Plains and Prairies

The Seattle area and the Great Plains region are very different in many aspects of their agriculture patterns, geography, and climate. In 2002, the average farm size in Eastern Montana was 2,000 acres or more, compared to Seattle area farms, which averaged less than 50 acres.[1]

When it comes to hail, the Great Plains beats the entire nation in average days with hail. Eastern Wyoming experiences six days of hail in an average year, as opposed to Seattle that only sees one day of hail in the year, if that.[2] As if that weren’t enough, central Oklahoma experiences an average of nine tornadoes in a year, Seattle, less than one, which basically means zero.[3]

Photo courtesy of tornado-facts.com

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[1] Stephen S. Birdsall, Eugene J. Palka, Jon C. Malinowski, and Margo L. Price, Regional Landscapes of the United States and Canada 7^th Edition (Wiley, 2008), 243.

[2] Birdsall, Palka, Malinowski, and Price, Landscapes of the U.S. and Canada, 238.

[3] Ibid., 238.