New York State Geography & Climate

The state runs from the Atlantic to the Great Lakes, and its shape was set by ice.

The Hudson is a fjord for much of its length — tidal and saline well north of the city — cutting a valley between the Catskills to the west and the Taconics to the east.

North of that the Adirondacks are a domed massif of ancient rock, still rising, and geologically unrelated to the Appalachians they are usually grouped with. The park covers six million acres, more than any other protected area in the contiguous states.

West of the Catskills the land flattens into the Finger Lakes — eleven long, deep, north-south troughs gouged by glaciers, deep enough that several have beds below sea level. The lakes moderate the climate on their slopes, which is why wine grows here at all.

Long Island is a terminal moraine: the debris line where the ice stopped, a hundred and twenty miles of it.

New York is humid continental, but the range across it is wide.

The city is hot and humid in July and August, moderated slightly by the ocean, and mild enough in winter that snow rarely lies for long.

Upstate winters are a different proposition. The belts downwind of the Great Lakes receive lake-effect snow measured in feet rather than inches, and the Tug Hill plateau is among the snowiest inhabited places in the United States.

The Adirondacks are cold and snowy from November to April, with summers pleasant and buggy in equal measure.

Autumn is the most settled season everywhere, which is why it is also the busiest upstate.