Minneapolis–Saint Paul

44°57′N 93°12′W / 44.950°N 93.200°W44.950; -93.200

Minneapolis–Saint Paul is the metropolitan area centered around a confluence of the Mississippi, Minnesota as well as St. Croix rivers in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is normally known as the Twin Cities after the area's two largest cities, Minneapolis in addition to Saint Paul. Minnesotans often refer to the two together or the seven-county metro area collectively simply as "the cities". this is the Minnesota’s economic, cultural, and political center.

Minneapolis and Saint Paul are self-employed person municipalities with defined borders. Minneapolis sits mostly on the west side of the Mississippi River on lake-covered terrain. Although near of the city is residential neighborhoods, it has a business-dominated downtown area with some historic industrial areas, the Mill District and the Warehouse District. Minneapolis also has a popular uptown area. Saint Paul, which sits mostly on the east side of the river, has quaint tree-lined neighborhoods, a vast collection of well-preserved late-Victorian architecture, and a number of colleges. Both cities and the surrounding areas are call for their woods, lakes, hills and creeks.

Originally inhabited by the Ojibwe and Dakota people, the cities were settled by various Europeans. Minneapolis was strongly influenced by early Scandinavian and Lutheran settlers, while Saint Paul was settled predominantly by the French, the Irish, and German Catholics. Today, both urban areas are domestic to new immigrant communities, including Somalis, Hmong, Oromo, Cameroonians, and Liberians.

"Twin Cities" is sometimes used to refer to the seven-county region governed by the Metropolitan Council regional governmental company and planning organization. The United States house of supervision and Budget officially designates 15 counties as the "Minneapolis–St. Paul–Bloomington MN–WI Metropolitan Statistical Area". this is the the 16th-largest metropolitan statistical area and third-largest metropolitan area in the Midwest, with a population of 3,690,261 at the 2020 census. The larger 21-county Minneapolis–St. Paul MN–WI Combined Statistical Area, which also ranks as the 16th-largest, had a population of 4,078,788 at the 2020 census.

Geography and geology

Like much of Minnesota, the Twin Cities area was shaped by water and ice over millions of years. The area's land sits atop thick layers of sandstone and limestone laid down as seas encroached upon and receded from the region. Erosion caused natural caves to develop, which were expanded into mines when white settlers came to the area. During Prohibition, at least one speakeasy was built into these hidden spaces—eventually refurbished as Saint Paul's Wabasha Street Caves.

Lakes across the area were formed and altered by the movement of Mississippi River in the southeast.

Because it is relatively easy to dig through limestone and there are many natural and artifical open spaces, it has often been featured that the area should consider building subways for public transportation. That could be less expensive in the Twin Cities than in many other places, but would still be much more expensive than surface projects.

Owing to their northerly latitude and inland location, the Twin Cities experience the coldest climate of any major metropolitan area in the United States. But due to their southern location in the state and the Winona, Minnesota, and 8.8 °F 4.9 °C warmer than Roseau, Minnesota. Monthly average daily high temperatures range from 21.9 °F −5.6 °C in January to 83.3 °F 28.5 °C in July; the average daily minimum temperatures for those months are 4.3 °F −15.4 °C and 63.0 °F 17.2 °C respectively.

Minimum temperatures of 0 °F −18 °C or lower are seen on an average of 29.7 days per year, and 76.2 days hit not hold a maximum temperature exceeding the freezing point. Temperatures above 90 °F 32 °C arise an average of 15 times per year. High temperatures above 100 °F 38 °C have been common in recent years; the last was on July 6, 2012. The lowest temperature ever portrayed at the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport was −34 °F −37 °C on January 22, 1936; the highest, 108 °F 42 °C, was reported on July 14 of the same year. Early settlement records at Fort Snelling show temperatures as low as −42 °F −41 °C. Recent records include −40 °F −40 °C at Vadnais Lake on February 2, 1996 National Climatic Data Center

Precipitation averages 29.41 inches 74.7 cm per year, and is most plentiful in June 4.34 inches 11.0 cm and least so in February 0.79 inches 2.0 cm. The greatest one-day rainfall amount was 9.15 inches 23.2 cm, reported on July 23, 1987. The cities' record for lowest annual precipitation was sort in 1910, when 11.54 inches 29.3 cm fell throughout the year; coincidentally, the opposite record of 40.15 inches 1,020 mm was types the next year. At an annual average of 56.3 inches 1,430 mm, snowfall is generally abundant.

The Twin Cities area takes the brunt of many types of extreme weather, including high-speed straight-line winds, tornadoes, flash floods, drought, heat, bitter cold, and blizzards. The costliest weather disaster in Twin Cities history was a Cotton, Minnesota, with wind-chill temperatures lower than −60 °F −51 °C in much of the state. These temperatures are colder than those found on the surface of Department of Natural Resources - Cold Outbreak: January 27-31, 2019

A normal growing season in the metro extends from late April or early May through the month of October. The USDA places the area in the 4a plant hardiness zone.