NEW YORK

New York, in Italian also well as New York) is a city of the United States of America. It is called New York for distinction from the homonymous federated state.

Also known in the world as the Big Apple, a comparison whose origins date back to the book The Wayfarer of New York written by Edward S. Martin in 1909, is important in the State of the same name and stands on an area of about 785 km² at the mouth of the Hudson River, on the Atlantic Ocean, while the metropolitan area also includes locations near New Jersey and Connecticut.

It is the most populous city in the United States (so much so that its population of 8.5 million is more than double the 4 million in Los Angeles, the second national city), recognized as a global city. The urban agglomeration has 18.223.567 inhabitants, the metropolitan one is 23.019.036 inhabitants, that the happiness, according to the forecasts, from the third to the sixth most populated urban area of the world, and between the first three of the boreal hemisphere and of the American continent (in competition with Mexico City and Sao Paulo). New York is also estimated as the most populated city in the world, between the African cities of Kinshasa and Lagos, as well as the most populous English-speaking city in the world.

On New York Bay (New York Bay), partly on the mainland and partly on islands, it is administratively divided into five districts (Manhattan), the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island. Of them, one is in the continent (the Bronx, north of Manhattan), three are on islands: (Staten Island, in front of New Jersey, Queens and Brooklyn, located in the extreme north-west and south-west of island of Long Island) and one, Manhattan, on the lower appendage of the peninsula on which the Bronx is also located and which is separated from it by the Harlem River, which connects the Hudson to the East River. The five districts are metropolitan county offices: New York County, properly occupying the territory of Manhattan, that of Kings, the territory of Brooklyn and that of Richmond, the territory of Staten Island; the other two counties (Bronx and Queens) are homonymous districts and overlap with their administrative territory. New York is also recognized as a city with the most impressive urban vistas in the world.

New York, New Jersey, and Hoboken, located on the west bank of the Hudson River, are not New York, nor are they part of its metropolitan area, but are confined to the western state of New Jersey, Jersey City, Newark, and Hoboken, in front of Manhattan. The city Newark is the other home to an international state that offers New York, the Newark-Liberty, 24 km from Manhattan.

One of its most famous symbols is the Statue of Liberty.
The city of New York is located on the east coast of North America, on the Atlantic Ocean, at the mouth of the Hudson River (which forms its western border, separating it from a series of suburbs in New Jersey), about halfway between Boston and Washington.

Territory
New York consists of five constituencies (called boroughs). The most northerly, the Bronx, rises on the continent, at the end of a small peninsula; Manhattan coincides with the island of the same name, located between the Hudson River and the East River (a small stretch of sea); Staten Island extends to the island of the same name along the New Jersey coast, southeast of New York Bay; Brooklyn and Queens are located at the western end of the island of Long Island, which reaches here the point of less distance from the continent. This particular topography has meant that the city became, since the colonial era, one of the most important ports in the world.

The city of New York covers an area of 1,214 km², of which approximately 784 km² are located on the mainland [10] and 430 km² occupied by water. The territory is almost everywhere extensively urbanized, characterized by a predominantly vertical construction (for which New York is world-famous) which leads to high values of average population density (above average 10,000 inhabitants / km², with peaks of over 25,000 people / km² in Manhattan).

There are also many smaller islands; among the largest there are Ellis Island, the island where once landed ships full of immigrants from Europe, and where they were kept in quarantine for a certain period before being admitted to the rest of the United States; Liberty Island, the island where the Statue of Liberty is located; Governors Island, Rikers Island, located in the East River north of Manhattan and home to a huge prison complex; Roosevelt Island, a small elongated island in the East River. At the southeastern end of the city, including the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn, there are also some small islands protected by the Gateway National Recreational Area
Climate
New York is a maritime city, but its climate has distinct features of continentality, similar to the rest of the Atlantic coastal strip of the northeastern United States. It is characterized by long and cold winters relative to its latitude, with average temperatures (between minimum and maximum) of 0 ° C or slightly above and peaks of -20 ° C, snow storms and storms due to the Labrador current and the absence of shelters that can protect the region from the impetuous northern winds. Summers are hot and humid (average 25 ° C in July).

According to the Köppen climate classification, New York would belong to the Cfa group, ie the humid temperate climate in all seasons, ie without dry period, with very hot summer and with an average temperature of the coldest month above -3 ° C (in fact the climate zone starting with the reference letter D assumes average thermal values below -3 ° C in the coldest month). However, some climatologists claim that the C group of temperate climates classified by Koppen is too broad; for example, New York and Orlando (Florida) both fall under this climate scheme despite huge differences, especially thermal ones, between the two places. The average annual city temperature (Central Park weather station, averages 1961-1990), around 13 ° C, oscillates on a monthly basis between about 0 ° C in January (colder month) and about 25 ° C of July (warmest month); the strong continentality of the climate means that the extreme thermal values recorded have a much greater "gap", going from -26.1 ° C to 41.7 ° C. As for precipitation, New York is a rather humid city, with an annual average of 1,200 mm; their distribution is fairly regular and markedly rainy or dry seasons are not identified during the year. A very little accentuated maximum is observed in the months of May, July and November, and a minimum that is not so sensitive in January and February. The average annual snowfall is around 71 cm.

Broadway after a heavy snowfall.
Winters are therefore cold despite the relatively southern latitude of the city (New York is located at the same latitude as Naples-Salerno). The average temperatures, around zero in the most rigid month, can hide considerable variations depending on the origin of the air masses that affect the area of the city but also for the presence or absence of sunny periods: the southern currents can bring considerable meekness also in the heart of winter, while the northern or north-western currents - which carry the air masses of the Canadian Arctic to the city - bring extreme cold and heavy snowfall accompanied by strong wind (blizzard).

Hurricane Irene, who hit New York in late August 2011, photographed from space just before his landfall in the south of Brooklyn.
Spring, cold in the first part (winter returns are not uncommon in style), is an explosion of colors and vegetative awakening and in the second half registers the first heat that anticipates the summer season. Along the areas closest to the coast, sea fogs are not uncommon in spring, caused by the flow of hot air on the surface of the colder sea.

The summer seasons are hot and rainy, with different thunderstorms that in a short time can flood several districts of the city, sometimes accompanied by hailstorms. During the summer, the city can be hit by intense heat waves accentuated by the arrival of masses of southern air, coming from the Gulf of Mexico, which can raise the maximums above 35 ° C and raise the humidity indices with consequential afa.