Physiographic Regions Of Mississippi
Landforms, Geology & Soil Formations

By Robert A. Stewart, Prof. Emeritus of Biology
(with addenda by Samuel Faulkner, Professor of Biology)

General Geography and Landscape Statistics
Mississippi ranks 32nd in land mass in the United States. The total surface area is 31 million acres. The state has about 420 square miles of inland water surface (not counting wetland areas). The state is about 340 miles in length and 180 miles at its widest. The highest point is Woodall Mountain, in Tishomingo County, about 800 feet above mean sea level. The edge of the southern portion of the state is at mean sea level at the Gulf of Mexico.

Mississippi's Climate
 The climate is in the "humid, subtropical" climate region. The average rainfall pattern for the state ranges from about 50-60 inches per year with lowest precipitation patterns in inland areas and highest in the coastal and near coastal areas, although this is somewhat variable with region. Winter ice storms can occur, and one of the most damaging recent ice storms in 1994 caused an estimated $1.6 billion dollars in damage and impacted nearly 4 million acres of land in the state. While snow or sleet rarely occurs in the coastal areas, north and central Mississippi areas will probably receive small amounts of snow or sleet in about 90-95% of years.

Mississippi's summers are long and hot, and although the mid-summer average statewide is about 80 to 82-degrees F, high temperatures often exceed 90-degrees F for up to 100 days,. Winters are generally short and mild. The average winter temperature ranges between about 40-42-degrees F. Temperatures typically plunge briefly into the 20s, or from time to time even lower. The soil rarely freezes. The first hard frost varies with region and latitude, but typically can occur from mid-October to mid-November in the northeast and northwest, and mid-November to mid-December or even later in south Mississippi areas. The last frosts usually occur between late February and up to mid- or late March, depending on region and latitude.

Due to our geographic position in the southeastern United States and prevailing southerly winds from May through September, Mississippi experiences high humidity coupled with extreme heat. Between February and May, the state experiences violent storms, and these often develop into destructive tornadoes. Hurricanes are common in late summer and autumn in our Gulf coastal region, and these can impact the Mississippi inland manifested as heavy rainfall and tornadoes as storm energy dissipates on the mainland. One of the most powerful hurricanes on record, Camille, had wind recorded as high as 129 miles per hour!

Landscape & Geographic Setting
The state of Mississippi lies almost entirely within what is known as the Gulf Coastal Plain which is continuous to the east with the Atlantic Coastal Plain. The Gulf Coastal Plain is subdivided along the Mississippi River into the East Gulf Coastal Plain and the West Gulf Coastal Plain. The Mississippi River Alluvial Plain is to the northwest. It consists of level and nearly level floodplains that extend to the foothills of the loess bluffs which form a crescent at the region's eastern edge. This landscape feature, known locally as the "Delta", also occurs in eastern Louisiana and Arkansas, and southeastern Missouri.

Coastal plains comprise a large portion of the state's land surface. Coastal plain landscapes are relatively low-lying areas of water-deposited sediments bordering oceans. The mostly hilly Upper East Gulf Coastal Plain, also called the Upper or Inner Coastal Plain, is delineated by the loess bluffs on its western edge. The Lower East Gulf Coastal Plain or the Lower or Outer Coastal Plain, is the mostly hilly region that comprises the roughly lower third of Mississippi's land mass. A recent notion of using the terms "Upper East" and "East Gulf" coastal plains, from a botanical standpoint, is reasonably supported by the distinctive lower coastal plain flora.


Please cite this document as:

Stewart, R.A. 2003. Physiographic regions of Mississippi. Handout,
Department of Biological Sciences, Delta State University, 6 pp.

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