This is true? - Geographic oddities that defy conventional wisdom

[CNGL-Leudimin]

It is possible to go from East of the Mississippi to West of the Mississippi and vice-versa without crossing the Mississippi river at all! Which leads to a question: What is East and what is West of the Mississippi North of Bemidji MN? This single fact resulted in the Northwest Angle.

[jmd41280]

Several examples of states that do not have a common border, but are geographically very close to each other...

The northern tip of Virginia is less than 18 miles from the Pennsylvania border
Maryland and New Jersey come within 12 miles of each other at their closest points
The western tip of Connecticut is only 11 miles from New Jersey
Massachusetts and Maine come within 16 miles of each other at their closest points
The easternmost point of Vermont is within 20 miles of the Maine border
Illinois and Tennessee come within 35 miles of each other
The northernmost border of Texas comes within 35 miles of Colorado and Kansas
The NW corner of Arkansas is 34.5 miles from the SE corner of Kansas
Kentucky and Arkansas come within 30 miles of each other at their closest points

[thenetwork]

The narrowest part of the Maryland panhandle which separates PA and WV (Near Hancock, MD) is just shy of 2 miles wide.

[bm7]

All of mainland Finland is north of the southernmost point of Greenland.

[Road Hog]

Several examples of states that do not have a common border, but are geographically very close to each other...

The northern tip of Virginia is less than 18 miles from the Pennsylvania border
Maryland and New Jersey come within 12 miles of each other at their closest points
The western tip of Connecticut is only 11 miles from New Jersey
Massachusetts and Maine come within 16 miles of each other at their closest points
The easternmost point of Vermont is within 20 miles of the Maine border
Illinois and Tennessee come within 35 miles of each other
The northernmost border of Texas comes within 35 miles of Colorado and Kansas
The NW corner of Arkansas is 34.5 miles from the SE corner of Kansas
Kentucky and Arkansas come within 30 miles of each other at their closest points

Similarly, Oklahoma and Louisiana are separated by only about 40 miles at a diagonal across the NE corner of Texas.

[KEVIN_224]

How close is the northeast tip of Ohio on Lake Erie to that of far southwestern New York state? (i.e. the I-90 region)

[renegade]

About 45 miles, give or take.

[ftballfan]

Several examples of states that do not have a common border, but are geographically very close to each other...

The northern tip of Virginia is less than 18 miles from the Pennsylvania border
Maryland and New Jersey come within 12 miles of each other at their closest points
The western tip of Connecticut is only 11 miles from New Jersey
Massachusetts and Maine come within 16 miles of each other at their closest points
The easternmost point of Vermont is within 20 miles of the Maine border
Illinois and Tennessee come within 35 miles of each other
The northernmost border of Texas comes within 35 miles of Colorado and Kansas
The NW corner of Arkansas is 34.5 miles from the SE corner of Kansas
Kentucky and Arkansas come within 30 miles of each other at their closest points

Similarly, Oklahoma and Louisiana are separated by only about 40 miles at a diagonal across the NE corner of Texas.

Fun fact: The far southeastern portion of Oklahoma gets TV stations from Louisiana.

[Max Rockatansky]

87% of Monroe County is on mainland Florida but 99% of the population is on the remaining 13% of land in the Keys.

[KEVIN_224]

@FTBALLFAN: Yep! McCurtain County in far southeastern Oklahoma is at the edge of the Shreveport-Texarkana DMA (Designated Market Area).

http://files.ktbs.com/ktbsadvertising/KTBS-CoverageMAP.pdf

[Bruce]

From November to March, both Washington (WA) and Western Australia (WA) set their clocks eight hours away from Greenwhich Mean Time, but in opposite directions. The U.S. West Coast uses UTC-08 during the winter, while Western Australia uses UTC+08 all year. UTC+08 is also the most populous time zone, with 1.7 billion people, and encompasses all of China from the Afghan border (where it switches from UTC+4.5) to the Russian border (at UTC+10).

[thenetwork]

UTC+08 is also the most populous time zone, with 1.7 billion people, and encompasses all of China from the Afghan border (where it switches from UTC+4.5) to the Russian border (at UTC+10).

What really caught my eye was the fact that crossing into a new time zone at one of the Chinese borders is an instant change of anywhere from 2 to 3-1/2 hours!! I can't fathom a change of more than an hour at a time zone boundary. 

Anyhoo, good oddity to share!!!

[english si]

What really caught my eye was the fact that crossing into a new time zone at one of the Chinese borders is an instant change of anywhere from 2 to 3-1/2 hours!! I can't fathom a change of more than an hour at a time zone boundary.

I believe the only such change inside a country is between Western Australia (+8) and South Australia/Northern Territories (+9:30 with SA moving to +10:30 in summer). Western Australia is sparsely populated away from Perth, and the middle of Australia doesn't have much, so fixing time zones to Perth, Adelaide and Darwin makes sense.

There's a few small villages near the WA/SA border and they unofficially, but universally, use +8.45 (no DST) - it's only about 200 people stretching 300 miles or so along a highway (but mostly in about 20 miles near the border), but they are 200 miles from the nearest places either way, so they have more in common with each other than Perth time or Adelaide time and it makes little sense to keep changing your clock an hour and a half (if not two and a half hours) to go 50 miles to some 'near' neighbours. Better to change your clocks 45 minutes (or 1:45 if its summer and you are heading east) only if you are going on a roughly four hour journey to (not to and from, just one-way) one of the 'big' towns, or further.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

While it is generally known that US States are larger than some European countries, I was surprised Spain is larger than all but two states (AK and TX). I was even more surprised to find out my province is larger than three states! (CT, DE and RI, it's even larger than the later two combined)

[Bruce]

While it is generally known that US States are larger than some European countries, I was surprised Spain is larger than all but two states (AK and TX). I was even more surprised to find out my province is larger than three states! (CT, DE and RI, it's even larger than the later two combined)

Your province is barely larger than my metropolitan area (which is relatively compact for a top-20 metro area).

[thenetwork]

El Paso, Texas is further west than Vail, Colorado.

[CtrlAltDel]

El Paso, Texas is further west than Vail, Colorado.

This is true insofar that the westernmost point of El Paso is west of the westernmost point of Vail. But it's also true that the easternmost point of El Paso is east of the easternmost point of Vail. For all intents and purposes, then, the cities lie at the same longitude, which is, to be fair, not what I would have expected.

[bing101]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guangdong

Guangdong province has more people than UK, France combined. But Guangdong is as big as Mexico and Japan in terms of population.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan

[TXtoNJ]

El Paso, Texas is further west than Vail, Colorado.

This is true insofar that the westernmost point of El Paso is west of the westernmost point of Vail. But it's also true that the easternmost point of El Paso is east of the easternmost point of Vail. For all intents and purposes, then, the cities lie at the same longitude, which is, to be fair, not what I would have expected.

There are a lot of things about that part of the West that are surprising. For one, it seems strange to me that Albuquerque is closer to Los Angeles than it is to Houston.

Another fun one - the Upper Mississippi is hydrologically a tributary of the Ohio River. The Allegheny-Ohio-Lower Mississippi are together the main stream of the Mississippi River system. On average, the Ohio has a larger flow at Cairo, and can be almost twice as much at times of the year.

The reason we consider the Upper and Lower Mississippi to be one river goes back to the colonial days, particularly after the French and Indian War, where the streams represented a convenient political frontier between Spanish claims in the West and British claims in the East. Furthermore, the Ohio represented another convenient barrier between cold continental climates to the north that lent themselves to small farming establishments, and hot subtropical climates in the south that were more efficiently exploited through plantation slavery.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Then we should rename the Ohio the Mississippi, the Mississippi between St. Louis and Cairo IL the Missouri, and the Mississippi upstream of St. Louis something else.

[Takumi]

Or, you know, not.

[kalvado]

Or, you know, not.

Actually this can become a hot topic. Imagine that instead of being a small town  on barely known tributary of great river you now have a major city on one of biggest rivers in the world - all at a cost of sorting out some old geographical mistakes and changing a few labels on a map?
It can mean a huge economic boost for the area, a new era for entire region!

[hotdogPi]

Or, you know, not.

Actually this can become a hot topic. Imagine that instead of being a small town  on barely known tributary of great river you now have a major city on one of biggest rivers in the world - all at a cost of sorting out some old geographical mistakes and changing a few labels on a map?
It can mean a huge economic boost for the area, a new era for entire region!

Then why is Cairo, IL small?

[TXtoNJ]

Or, you know, not.

Actually this can become a hot topic. Imagine that instead of being a small town  on barely known tributary of great river you now have a major city on one of biggest rivers in the world - all at a cost of sorting out some old geographical mistakes and changing a few labels on a map?
It can mean a huge economic boost for the area, a new era for entire region!

Then why is Cairo, IL small?

Railroads and the New Madrid earthquake.

[empirestate]

Another fun one - the Upper Mississippi is hydrologically a tributary of the Ohio River. The Allegheny-Ohio-Lower Mississippi are together the main stream of the Mississippi River system. On average, the Ohio has a larger flow at Cairo, and can be almost twice as much at times of the year.

See, I always figured they were both tributaries of the Missouri–or is that only the case when they're trying to claim the "longest river" title?