The Coastal South

The Coastal South, also known as the Gulf Coast is located south of Chicago and has many differences compared to the mid-western metropolis. With a subtropical humid climate, the gulf coast yields warm, humid summers and mild winters. It's characterized by a belted band of lowlands and cuestra ridges. It's forested swampy lowland reaches over beaches and barrier islands. The northern part of the region extends from the Alabama Black Belt and west of Montgomery, Alabama.

Climate

The gulf coast's climate includes an average rainfall greater than 125 centimeters almost all in the summer for ideal growing conditions. It's a huge advantage for the agricultural business, making it easier to grow crops that cannot be grown elsewhere. 

However, one of the disadvantages of this subtropical humid climate are hurricanes. The intense solar heating over large bodies of water such as the Gulf of Mexico occasionally creates massive storms. Examples of these massive storms are Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and Hurricane Katrina which is pictured below. 

Luckily, Chicago gets no such storms as severe as the ones in the Gulf Coast, however the advantage that the coast has with intercoastal trade and agriculture is somewhat of a fair trade.