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Show ity, and moderate cloudiness and winds. January is the coldest month, with temperature averages near freezing. July, the hottest month, has an aver- age temperature of about 75°. Temperature ex- tremes range from -30° to 115° Fahrenheit. Rainfall is usually well distributed throughout the year. However, occasional droughts and recurring local and widespread flood producing storms, such as those of 1927 and 1937, have been experienced. Average annual precipitation varies from approxi- mately 30 inches in the northwestern part to more than 50 inches in the forested mountains of the southeast. Snowfall varies from about 10 inches annually in the extreme western and southwestern parts to about 60 inches in the northeast and 80 inches in southwestern New York. Most of the Ohio Basin area was originally cov- ered with stands of hardwood forests. These were cleared by early settlers to make way for farms. At the present time, 800,000 farms occupy more than 75 million acres of land, 42 million of which are cultivated. Extensive forests still remain in the mountain regions of eastern Kentucky, western Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Soil types vary from the rich black soils of the Corn Belt and fertile river valleys to poorly drained claypan types and shallow rocky soils in upland areas. While erosion and sedimentation are not so serious as in some other river basins, serious erosion problems exist in the rolling, hilly, upland areas on all denuded slopes. Socio-Economic Features Population Distribution and Growth According to the 1950 census, 17,330,000 people live in the Ohio River Basin. Nine of the 50 largest cities and 16 of the 140 metropolitan dis- tricts of the United States are located within its boundaries (table 1). Population has increased steadily since the days of its early settlement but at a decreasing rate in recent decades, as is characteristic of a maturing economy. Increase in the 1940-50 decade was 8.2 percent, somewhat more than half the rate of increase for the whole United States (14 percent). More than half the population is urban. Metro- politan Pittsburgh area, with a population of 2.2 million, is the largest urban concentration. Be- tween 1940 and 1950, the metropolitan areas had an absolute increase of 1,080,000 persons, while the total basin increase was 1.3 million. Thus the population increase was primarily urban growth- much of it at the expense of rural areas. TABLE 1.-Metropolitan areas in Ohio River Basin * Metropolitan area Ohio: Canton...................... Cincinnati................... Columbus.................... Dayton...................... Hamilton-Middletown......... Springfield................... Pennsylvania: Johnstown................... Pittsburgh................... Indiana: Evansville.................... Indianapolis.................. Terre Haute.................. Tennessee: Nashville.............. Kentucky: Louisville............. West Virginia: Charleston................... Huntingdon.................. Wheeling, W. Va.-Steubenville, Ohio...................... Total for 16 metropolitan areas (34 counties), 1940- 6,405,145................. 1950 population 282, 060 898, 031 501, 882 453, 181 146, 792 110,999 290, 551 2, 205, 544 158, 363 549, 047 104, 931 320, 388 547, 474 319, 277 245, 631 352, 924 7, 487, 075 Percent change 1940-50 20.1 14.1 29.1 36.8 22.1 16.1 -2.6 5.9 21.1 19.1 5.2 24.5 27.2 15.6 8.8 -3.1 13.4 1 Each standard metropolitan area is an integrated eco- nomic unit with a large volume of daily travel and com- munication between a central city with population exceed- ing 50,000 and the outlying parts of the area. Nature of the Economy The economy of this basin is perhaps the most diversified of any major river basin in the United States. Vast quantities of agricultural products are produced in the area. More than three-fourths of the Nation's bituminous coal is mined here. This is one of the Nation's outstanding industrial regions and includes the highly important iron and steel- producing areas of Pittsburgh, Youngstown3 and Wheeling; such large manufacturing centers as Co- lumbus, Canton, Cincinnati, Louisville, and Indian- apolis; and Charleston, W. Va., a major center of the chemical industry along the Kanawha River. 628 |