Virginia Geography & Climate

Virginia runs in bands from the Atlantic to the Appalachians. The Tidewater in the east is flat, wet and cut by four great rivers draining into the Chesapeake Bay, with the Eastern Shore a separate peninsula across the mouth of it.

Inland, the rolling piedmont carries most of the farmland and the horse country, rising to the fall line where the rivers stop being navigable — which is why the older cities sit where they do.

The Blue Ridge runs the length of the state, with the Shenandoah Valley behind it and the Allegheny ridges beyond that. The high point, in the far southwest, is 5,729 feet.

The southwest corner is coal and karst country, with major cave systems, and holds the state's wildest land.

Most of Virginia is humid subtropical. Summers in the Tidewater and piedmont are hot and heavy, regularly into the mid-thirties Celsius with humidity to match.

The mountains are several degrees cooler year-round and are where residents go in August. Winter is mild in the east and properly cold on the ridge, where snow and ice close the scenic drives for days at a time.

Spring and autumn are long and excellent, and October is the most reliable month of the year.

Hurricanes and tropical storms reach the coast from August to October, and their remnants cause serious flash flooding in the mountain valleys well inland.