The Great Lake and Corn Belt

             The region of the Great Lakes and Corn belt is nothing like that of the Pacific Northwest.  The Great Lakes and Corn Belt region is a very flat area and some of the areas sit less than 2000 feet above sea level.  Much of the area was covered and shaped by the glaciation that occurred approximately 10,000 years ago.  Areas to the south and east are hillier and less suited for agriculture.  This area is home to the world's largest natural lakes where the country gets a large number of crops.  These crops are also exported to counties all around the world.  A lot of the Midwestern farms are family owned and very mechanized.  The United States is the world's leading producer of corn.  The U.S. is also producing soybeans on the same farms as corn.  Farms in other parts of the region are producing cattle for milk and meat along with hogs.  This is the complete opposite of Washington.  Washington is rugged and full of high mountains and volcanoes.  Farming is extremely minimal and isolated to the east.  All of the harvesting is from natural resources like trees and fish.  This landscape is nothing like the Great Lakes and Corn Belt region since glaciation did not hit Washington like it did the Midwest.  Because of this, it gave the mountains of Washington the opportunity to keep it's topography. 

             The Great Lakes and Corn Belt region's weather is somewhat different than that of Washington's.  The climate of the region is determined by the Great Lakes (Hardwick, 2008 et al).  The south and east part of the region are locations of heavy snow fall in the winter.  There are occasionally blizzards and snowstorms in the region that can effect all ways of traveling.  In the spring and summer time, tornadoes and thunderstorms can be a major hazard to lives and property throughout the region.  Since this is an area of large cities, human lives are especially at risk.  Washington's weather is not as extreme most of the time even though they do get some major rainstorms coming down from Alaska.  This results in flooding when a major storm does come through.  Snow is isolated to very high peaks of the Cascade Mountains.       


Hardwick, Susan W., Shelley, Fred M., Holtgrieve, Donald G. The Geography of North America. Glenview, 2008. Print.