|
Miami
is a global city in southeastern Florida, in the United
States. Miami is the county seat of Miami-Dade County,
the most populous county in Florida. With a population
of over 404,048, Miami is the largest city within the
Miami metropolitan area, which is the fourth-largest
urban area in the United States with over 5.59 million
residents.
Miami is ranked as a global city
for its importance in finance, commerce, media, entertainment,
arts and international trade. The city is home to many
company headquarters, banks, and television studios.
It is an international center for popular entertainment
in television, music, fashion, film and the performing
arts. The city's Port of Miami is known for accommodating
the largest volume of cruise ships in the world and
is home to many cruise line headquarters. Miami is
also home to the largest concentration of international
banks in the United States. Miami’s economic,
cultural, and linguistic ties to the Americas and the
Caribbean make Miami an important center of the Hispanic
world.
As of 2008, Miami is undergoing
a large building boom with 24 skyscrapers that are
expected to rise over 400 feet (122 m) currently under
construction in the city. Miami’s skyline ranks
third in the U.S., behind New York City and Chicago,
and 18th in the world according to the Almanac of Architecture
and Design. The city currently has nine of the ten
tallest skyscrapers in the state of Florida, with the
tallest being the 789-foot (240 m) Four Seasons Hotel & Tower.
In 2008, Miami was ranked as "America's
Cleanest City" according to Forbes Magazine for
its year-round good air quality, vast green spaces, clean
drinking water, clean streets and city-wide recycling
programs. In 2008, Miami was also ranked the 3rd-richest
city in the United States and the world's 22nd-richest
city in a UBS study.
Climate
Typical summer afternoon shower rolling in from the
Everglades.Miami has a true tropical climate ,with
hot, humid summers, and warm, dry winters. The city
does experience cold fronts from November through March.
However, the average monthly temperature for any month
has never been recorded as being under 64.4 °F
(January averages 67 °F).Most of the year is
warm and humid, and the summers are almost identical
to the climate of the Caribbean tropics. In addition,
the city gets most of its rain in the summer (wet season)
and is relatively dry and cool in winter (dry season).
The wet season, which is hot and humid, lasts from May
to October, when it gives way to the dry season, which
features mild temperatures with some invasions of colder
air, which is when the little winter rainfall occurs — with
the passing of a front. The hurricane season largely
coincides with the wet season.
A typical winter day in MiamiIn addition to its sea-level
elevation, coastal location and position just above
the Tropic of Cancer, the area owes its warm, humid
climate to the Gulf Stream, which moderates climate
year-round. A typical summer day does not have temperatures
below 75 °F (24 °C). Temperatures in the high
80s to low 90s (30-35 °C) accompanied by high humidity
are often relieved by afternoon thunderstorms or a
sea breeze that develops off the Atlantic Ocean, which
then allow lower temperatures, although conditions
still remain very muggy. During winter, humidity is
significantly lower, allowing for cooler weather to
develop. Average minimum temperatures during that time
are around 60 °F (15 °C), rarely dipping below
40 °F (4 °C), and the equivalent maxima usually
range between 70 and 77 °F (19-24 °C).
Miami has never recorded a triple-digit
temperature; the highest temperature recorded was 98 °F
(37 °C)..
The coldest temperature ever recorded in the city of
Miami was 30 °F (-1 °C) on several occasions.
Miami has only once recorded snowfall, on January 20,
1977. Weather conditions for the area around Miami were
recorded sporadically from 1839 until 1900, with many
years-long gaps. A cooperative temperature and rainfall
recording site was established in what is now Downtown
in December, 1900. An official Weather Bureau Office
was opened in Miami in June, 1911.
Miami receives abundant rainfall, one
of the highest among major U.S. cities. Most of this
rainfall occurs from mid-May through early October. It
receives annual rainfall of 58.6 inches (1488 mm),
whereas nearby Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach receive
63.8 in (1621 mm) and 48.3 in (1227 mm), respectively,
which demonstrates the high local variability in rainfall
rates. Hurricane season officially runs from June 1 through
November 30, although hurricanes can develop beyond those
dates. The most likely time for Miami to be hit is during
the peak of the Cape Verde season which is mid-August
through the end of September. Due to its location
between two major bodies of water known for tropical
activity, Miami is also statistically the most likely
major city in the world to be struck by a hurricane,
trailed closely by Nassau, Bahamas, and Havana, Cuba.
Despite this, the city has been fortunate in not having
a direct hit by a hurricane since Hurricane Cleo in 1964.
However, many other hurricanes have affected the city,
including Betsy in 1965, Andrew in 1992, Irene in 1999,
and Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma in 2005. In addition,
a tropical depression in October of 2000 passed over
the city, causing record rainfall and flooding. Locally,
the storm is credited as the No Name Storm of 2000, though
the depression went on to become Tropical Storm Leslie
upon entering the Atlantic Ocean.
Demographics
Miami is the 43rd most populous
city in the U.S. The Miami metropolitan area, which
includes Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties,
had a combined population of more than 5.4 million
people, ranked fourth-largest in the United States,
(behind Chicago, Illinois), and is the largest metropolitan
area in the Southeastern United States. As of 2008,
the United Nations estimates that the Miami Urban Agglomeration
is the fourth-largest in the United States, and the
44th-largest in the world. As of the census of
2000, there were 362,470 people, 134,198 households,
and 83,336 families residing in the city. The population
density was 10,160.9/mi² (3,923.5/km²).
There were 148,388 housing units at an average density
of 4,159.7/mi² (1,606.2/km²).
There were 134,198 households out of which 26.3% had
children under the age of 18 living with them, 36.6%
were married couples living together, 18.7% have a female
head of household with no husband present, and 37.9%
were non-families. 30.4% of all households were made
up of individuals and 12.5% had someone living alone
who was 65 years of age or older. The average household
size was 2.61 and the average family size was 3.25. The
age distribution was 21.7% under the age of 18, 8.8%
from 18 to 24, 30.3% from 25 to 44, 22.1% from 45 to
64, and 17.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The
median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there
were 98.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over,
there were 97.3 males.
The median
income for a household in the city was $23,483, and
the median income for a family was $27,225. Males had
a median income of $24,090 versus $20,115 for females.
The per capita income for the city was $15,128. About
23.5% of families and 28.5% of the population were
below the poverty line, including 38.2% of those under
age 18 and 29.3% of those age 65 or over.
Miami’s explosive population
growth in recent years has been driven by internal
migration from other parts of the country as well as
by immigration. Miami is regarded as more of a multicultural
mosaic, than it is a melting pot, with residents still
maintaining much of, or some of their cultural traits.
The overall culture of Miami is heavily influenced
by its large population of ethnic Latin Americans and
cultures from Caribbeans from islands such as Jamaica,
Trinidad and Tobago, The Bahamas, and Cuba; many of
whom spoke Spanish or Haitian Creole.
Today, Miami
has a sizable community of citizens, undocumented populations,
and permanent residents, of Argentines, Bahamians,
Brazilians, Canadians, Chileans, Chinese, Colombians,
Cubans, Dominicans, Ecuadorans, French, German, Greeks,
Guatemalans, Guayanese, Haitians, Hondurans, Jamaicans,
Indians, Italians, Mexicans, Nicaraguans, Peruvians,
Russians, Salvadoran, Trinidadians and Tobagonians,
Turks, South Africans, and Venezuelans, as well as
a sizable Puerto Rican population throughout the metropolitan
area. While commonly thought of as mainly a city of
Hispanic and Caribbean immigrants, the Miami area is
home to large French, French Canadian, German, Italian,
and Russian communities. The communities have grown
to a prominent place in Miami and its suburbs, creating
ethnic enclave neighborhoods such as Little Haiti,
Little Havana, Little Managua, Little Brazil, Little
Moscow, and Little San Juan.
Special Thanks to : Wikipedia, the
free encyclopedia
Top of
Page
Web Design by Emediamasters.com
|
