Chapter 10: The Southern Coastlands- On the Subtropical Margin

    Unlike the Southern Coastlands, Arizona is a desert with dry, hot weather. The Southern Coastlands are a subtropical place that is very humid. One of the main things I love about Arizona is that it is a dry heat (being a girl and all I like that I can go outside and my hair won't get frizzy from the humidity). However, because of their humid weather, they are able to grow crops that most other places cannot. The region's most important specialty crops are citrus fruits, rice, and sugarcane. Only few places can successfully grow sugarcane, it's growing conditions are very specific. The leading cash crop in Arizona isn't even a food it is cotton. Due to their hot weather, they are limited to what they can farm. Cotton seems to be the most successful, which makes sense.
      Quite similar to Lake Havasu City, Florida is a tourist attraction, and a prime place for people to retire. The one bad thing about the Southern Coastlands' subtropical weather is the inevitable mid-winter frost reaches southern Florida. They also have more sporadic, dramatic, and destructive hurricanes than in North America. Hurricanes are created by intense solar heating over large bodies of warm water . Then a massive low-pressure atmospheric pocket forms, drawing in warm, moist air. The deeper the pocket, the faster the wind flows and the more destructive the storm's potential.

The ability to reach inland sources of exchange is more important in creating trade than physical facilities. Rail connections strengthened each harbor's access to North America's major inland markets. However, the city was well established before highway connections reinforced its growth.

The two of the three leading petroleum-producing states are Texas and Louisiana (Alaska being the third). Arizona currently has no oil refineries and only two pipelines which transport almost all of Arizona’s gasoline from Texas, New Mexico and California. It takes a gallon of gasoline approximately 7 days to travel through the West Line from California to Phoenix and approximately 6 days to travel on the East Line from El Paso, Texas to Phoenix. A small percentage of the state’s gasoline is trucked in from neighboring states. Arizona’s state and federal gasoline taxes are 37.4 cents per gallon. Comparatively, California’s state and federal taxes are 60 cents per gallon (another reason why moving to Arizona doesn't sound half bad), while Nevada consumers pay 51.9 cents per gallon. (Source: American Petroleum Institute)
     

http://www.azag.gov/consumer/gasoline/gas.htmlhttp://www.city-data.com/states/Arizona-Agriculture.html