Geography
The City of Miami and its suburbs are located on a broad plain between the Florida Everglades and Biscayne Bay that also extends from Florida Bay north to Lake Okeechobee. The elevation of the area never rises above 15ft (4.5m) and averages at around 3ft (0.91m) above sea level in most neighborhoods especially near the coast. The main portion of the city lies on the shores of Biscayne Bay which contains several hundred natural and artificially created barrier islands, the largest of which contains the city of Miami Beach and its famous South Beach district. These islands are geologically considered to be part of the Florida Keys, but are not politically related to them. The Gulf Stream, a warm ocean current, runs northward just 15 miles (24.1km) off the coast, allowing the city's climate to stay warm and mild all year.

Beneath the plain lies the Biscayne Aquifer [1], a natural underground river that extends from southern Palm Beach County to Florida Bay, with its highest point peeking around the cities of Miami Springs and Hialeah. Most of the South Florida metropolitan area obtains its drinking water from this aquifer. As a result of the aquifer, it is not possible to dig more than 15 to 20ft (4.57 to 6.1m) beneath the city without hitting water, impending underground construction.

Most of the western fringes of the city extend into the Everglades, a subtropical marshland located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida. This causes occasional problems with local wildlife such as Alligators and Crocodiles venturing onto suburban communities and major highways.

The size of the incorporated portion of Miami makes it the smallest major city in the United States. According to the US Census Bureau, the city encompasses a total area of 55.27 mi² (143.15 sq. km). Of that area, 35.67 sq. miles (92.68 sq. km) are land and 19.59 sq. miles (50.73 sq. km) are water. Miami is slightly smaller in land area than San Francisco and Boston.

The city is located at 25° 47´16“N, 80° 13´27“WGR1.

Climate
The City of Miami, as well as the rest of Southern Florida has a warm, humid subtropical climate year round, with occasional cold fronts during the winter. The area does not experience temperate seasons and the year is instead divided into a wet and dry season which alternates every six months with the dry season taking place during the winter months and the wet season coordinating with the summer's hurricane season.

The area owes its warm, humid climate to the Gulf Stream, which moderates climate year-round. A typical summer day does not see temperatures below 70ºF (21º C). As the morning progresses, humidity builds as water evaporates culminating in near-daily afternoon showers settling into a humid evening and cool night. During winter, humidity is significantly lower allowing for drier conditions to prosper. Temperatures are generally moderated by cold fronts which dip down from the northern states; average temperatures are around 60ºF (15ºC) and lower depending on whether there is a cold front and rarely dip below 40ºF (4ºC). During the dry season, the Gulf Stream keeps the cold fronts from adversly affecting Miami as they do in more northern areas of the state of Florida.

Officially, Miami's warmest recorded temperature was 103ºF (39.4ºC) on July 17, 2004, though summer humidity often places the heat index in the 110s (43 to 48ºC). The coldest recorded temperature in the city of Miami was 27 °F (-2.8 °C) on February 3, 1917, though the coldest temperature ever recorded in the metropolitan area was 20 °F (-6.6 °C) near Homestead, Florida, on January 19, 1977. That same day, Miami experienced its first and only recorded snowfall since weather records began in the 1830s. [2]

The South Florida metropolitan area, which includes the cities of Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach, is the second largest metropolitan area in the world after Tokyo that receives regular cyclonic activity. Hurricane season officially runs from June 1 through November 30 but has been known to start and end outside of these dates. The most likely time for Miami to be hit is during the peak of the Cape Verde season which is late August through the end of September [3]. Due to its location between two major bodies of water known for tropical activity, Miami is also statiscally the most likely major city to be struck by a hurricane in the world, trailed closely by Nassau, Bahamas, and Havana, Cuba. Despite this, the city has been fortunate in not having a direct hit by a hurricane since 1950's Hurricane King, although many other hurricanes have affected the city, including Hurricane Cleo in 1964, Betsy in 1965, Andrew in 1992, Irene in 1999, and Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma in 2005. In addition, a tropical depression in October of 2000 passed over the city creating record rainfall and flooding. Locally, the storm is credited as the No Name Storm of 2000, though the depression went on to become Tropical Storm Leslie upon entering the Atlantic Ocean.