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Lower Plains: Kansas, Nebraska

season in the state. Western Kansas, by contrast, receives only 16 to 20 inches (41 to 51 cm) of rainfall a year. The wettest part of the state is the Ozark Plateau in the southeast, where up to 46 inches (117 cm) of rain can fall per year. Average snowfall in Kansas ranges from less than 5 inches (13 cm) in the south of the state to up to 35 inches (89 cm) in the northwest. Kansas is prone to severe thunder-

most of it here in Flint Hills. Just as Kansas’s topography varies across the state, so too does the cli- mate. Eastern Kansas has hot, humid summers and cold winters. In the west, summers are less humid and winters are subject to wild fluctuations and extremes. Northeastern Kansas averages about 35 inches (89 cm) of rain per year and enjoys the longest growing

The Flint Hills in southeast Kansas were named because large amounts of flint can be found throughout the region. The prairie in this area still looks as it did before the arrival of Europeans.