Typical horse ranch in Kentucky

Kentucky Cities, Climate and Sights

The US state of Kentucky is located in the southeastern part of the United States and is framed between Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. Its capital is the small town of Frankfort, which is home to around 25,000 people.

  • Liuxers: List of Federal school codes for educational institutions located in Kentucky. Includes FAFSA codes in the state of Kentucky.

Kentucky’s regions and landscape

Typical horse ranch in Kentucky

Typical horse ranch in Kentucky

About 4 million inhabitants live on the little more than 104,000 km² in the mostly smaller cities and on the countryside, which can be found in abundance in Kentucky.

This makes it slightly larger than Austria, for example, which measures 83,850 km² and has twice the population with more than 8 million people.

The various regions of Kentucky are divided into the Cumberland Mountains, the Cumberland Plateau in the southeast, the bluegrass region in the north, the Pennyroyal Plateau in the south and west , the coalfields in the west, and the Jackson Purchase in the extreme west.

The highest mountain in the area is Black Mountain in Harlan County at 1292 meters. Deciduous and coniferous forests as far as the eye can see, a great area for nature lovers, where the animal world is not neglected.

Central Kentucky, the bluegrass region, is in the north of the state. Grain is mainly cultivated here, pastures for the many cattle complement the relatively flat and agriculturally friendly area.

The Mississippi Plateau is only separated from it by a series of smaller low mountain ranges, the Knobs. The Western Coal Fields, bounded by the Ohio River to the north and northwest, are already part of the Illinois Basin.

Southwest Kentucky is a lower plain called the Jackson Purchase. Here is also the lowest point of Kentucky in Fulton County, around 78 meters above sea level. The huge alluvial land forms one of the most productive agricultural areas in the country.

Large rivers such as the Ohio River or the Mississippi River flow through Kentucky, other important rivers are the Big Sandy River, the Tennessee River, the Cumberland River and Rough River, the Red and Green River, the Licking River and the Kentucky River. Some reservoirs can also be found in Kentucky, Lake Barkley and Dewey Lake on Big Sandy are a few examples.

Mammoth Cave National Park, covering more than 21,300 hectares, is located in central Kentucky. With a length of around 627 km, the Mammoth Cave is the largest known cave in the world and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The biggest cities

The population figures are from 2010 and are rounded. See Kentucky counties list.

  1. Lousville 600,000
  2. Lexington 295,000
  3. Bowling Green 58,000
  4. Owensboro 57,000
  5. Covingon 40,000

Climate and weather in Kentucky

Located in the interior of the United States, Kentucky’s climate is humid subtropical. The climate offers cool winters and warm summers. Average temperatures vary between 30°C in summer and -5°C in winter with just over 1100mm of rainfall a year. The annual mean temperature is around 14 °C in large parts of the country.

In contrast, snow depths of more than 50 cm are common in the Appalachian Mountains in winter. Skiing and tobogganing is good in German lands. Tornadoes can also occur in Kentucky. Usually between March and September the weather is so charged that the well-known hurricanes can occur.