Atlanta encompasses 134.0 square miles (347.1 km²), of which 133.2 square miles (344.9 km²) is land and 0.85 square miles (2.2 km²) is water.^[82] The city is situated in the Deep South of the southeastern United States among the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. At 1,050 feet (320 m) above mean sea level, Atlanta has the highest elevation among major cities east of the Mississippi River.^[83] Atlanta straddles the Eastern Continental Divide. Rainwater that falls on the south and east side of the divide flows into the Atlantic Ocean, while rainwater on the north and west side of the divide flows into the Gulf of Mexico.^[84] Atlanta developed on a ridge south of the Chattahoochee River, which is part of the ACF River Basin. The river borders the far northwestern edge of the city, and much of its natural habitat has been preserved, in part by the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area.^[85]

Atlanta is 21 miles (34 km) southeast of Marietta,^[86] 27 miles (43 km) southwest of Alpharetta, 146 miles (235 km) southwest of Greenville, South Carolina,^[87] 147 miles (237 km) east of Birmingham, Alabama,^[88] and 245 miles (394 km) southwest of Charlotte, North Carolina.^[89]

Despite having lost significant tree canopy coverage between 1973 and 1999, Atlanta now has the densest urban tree coverage of any major city in the United States and is often called "City of Trees" or "The City in a Forest".^[16]^[90]^[91]^[92]

Cityscape

The Downtown skyline at sunset

Midtown Atlanta as seen along the Downtown Connector

Partial view of North Buckhead skyline looking southwest

Most of Atlanta was burned in the final months of the American Civil War, depleting the city of a large stock of its historic architecture. Yet architecturally, the city had never been traditionally "southern": Atlanta originated as a railroad town rather than a southern seaport dominated by the planter class, such as Savannah or Charleston. Because of its later development, many of the city's landmarks share architectural characteristics with buildings in the Northeast or Midwest, as they were designed at a time of shared national architectural styles.^[93]

During the late 20th century, Atlanta embraced the global trend of modern architecture, especially for commercial and institutional structures. Examples include the State of Georgia Building built in 1966, and the Georgia-Pacific Tower in 1982. Many of the most notable examples from this period were designed by world renowned Atlanta architect John Portman. Most of the buildings that define the downtown skyline were designed by Portman during this period, including the Westin Peachtree Plaza and the Atlanta Marriott Marquis. In the latter half of the 1980s, Atlanta became one of the early homes of postmodern buildings that reintroduced classical elements to their designs. Many of Atlanta's tallest skyscrapers were built in this period and style, displaying tapering spires or otherwise ornamented crowns, such as One Atlantic Center (1987), 191 Peachtree Tower (1991), and the Four Seasons Hotel Atlanta (1992). Also completed during the era is the Portman-designed Bank of America Plaza built in 1992. At 1,023 feet (312 m), it is the tallest building in the city and the 14th-tallest in the United States.^[94]

The city's embrace of modern architecture has often translated into an ambivalent approach toward historic preservation, leading to the destruction of many notable architectural landmarks. These include the Equitable Building (1892–1971), Terminal Station (1905–1972), and the Carnegie Library (1902–1977).^[95] In the mid-1970s, the Fox Theatre, now a cultural icon of the city, would have met the same fate if not for a grassroots effort to save it.^[93] More recently, preservationists may have made some inroads. For example, in 2016 activists convinced the Atlanta City Council not to demolish the Atlanta-Fulton Central Library, the last building designed by noted architect Marcel Breuer.^[96]

Atlanta is divided into 242 officially defined neighborhoods.^[97] The city contains three major high-rise districts, which form a north–south axis along Peachtree: Downtown, Midtown, and Buckhead.^[98] Surrounding these high-density districts are leafy, low-density neighborhoods, most of which are dominated by single-family homes.^[99]

Downtown Atlanta contains the most office space in the metro area, much of it occupied by government entities. Downtown is home to the city's sporting venues and many of its tourist attractions.^[100] Midtown Atlanta is the city's second-largest business district, containing the offices of many of the region's law firms. Midtown is known for its art institutions, cultural attractions, institutions of higher education, and dense form.^[101]^[102]^[103]^[104]^[105] Buckhead, the city's uptown district, is eight miles (13 km) north of Downtown and the city's third-largest business district. The district is marked by an urbanized core along Peachtree Road, surrounded by suburban single-family neighborhoods situated among woods and rolling hills.^[106]^[107]^[108]^[109]

Surrounding Atlanta's three high-rise districts are the city's low- and medium-density neighborhoods,^[106] where the craftsman bungalow single-family home is dominant.^[110] The eastside is marked by historic streetcar suburbs, built from the 1890s to the 1930s as havens for the upper middle class. These neighborhoods, many of which contain their own villages encircled by shaded, architecturally distinct residential streets, include the Victorian Inman Park, Bohemian East Atlanta, and eclectic Old Fourth Ward.^[93]^[111] On the westside and along the BeltLine on the eastside, former warehouses and factories have been converted into housing, retail space, and art galleries, transforming the once-industrial areas such as West Midtown into model neighborhoods for smart growth, historic rehabilitation, and infill construction.^[112]

In southwest Atlanta, neighborhoods closer to downtown originated as streetcar suburbs, including the historic West End, while those farther from downtown retain a postwar suburban layout. These include Collier Heights and Cascade Heights, historically home to much of the city's upper middle-class African-American population.^[113]^[114]^[115] Northwest Atlanta contains the areas of the city to west of Marietta Boulevard and to the north of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, including those neighborhoods remote to downtown, such as Riverside, Bolton and Whittier Mill. The latter is one of Atlanta's designated Landmark Historical Neighborhoods. Vine City, though technically Northwest, adjoins the city's Downtown area and has recently been the target of community outreach programs and economic development initiatives.^[116]

Gentrification of the city's neighborhoods is one of the more controversial and transformative forces shaping contemporary Atlanta. The gentrification of Atlanta has its origins in the 1970s, after many of Atlanta's neighborhoods had declined and suffered the urban decay that affected other major American cities in the mid-20th century. When neighborhood opposition successfully prevented two freeways from being built through the city's east side in 1975, the area became the starting point for Atlanta's gentrification. After Atlanta was awarded the Olympic games in 1990, gentrification expanded into other parts of the city, stimulated by infrastructure improvements undertaken in preparation for the games. New development post-2000 has been aided by the Atlanta Housing Authority's eradication of the city's public housing. As noted above, it allowed development of these sites for mixed-income housing, requiring developers to reserve a considerable portion for affordable housing units. It has also provided for other former residents to be given vouchers to gain housing in other areas.^[73] Construction of the Beltline has stimulated new and related development along its path.^[117]

Climate

Under the Köppen classification, Atlanta has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa)^[118] with generous precipitation year-round, typical for the Upland South; the city is situated in USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 8a, with the northern and western suburbs, as well as part of Midtown transitioning to 7b.^[119] Summers are hot and humid, with temperatures somewhat moderated by the city's elevation. Winters are overall mild but variable, occasionally susceptible to snowstorms even if in small quantities on several occasions, unlike the central and southern portions of the state.^[120]^[121] Warm air from the Gulf of Mexico can bring spring-like highs while strong Arctic air masses can push lows into the teens °F (−7 to −12 °C).

July averages 80.9 °F (27.2 °C), with high temperatures reaching 90 °F (32 °C) on an average of 47 days per year, though 100 °F (38 °C) readings are not seen most years.^[122] January averages 44.8 °F (7.1 °C), with temperatures in the suburbs slightly cooler due largely to the urban heat island effect. Lows at or below freezing can be expected 36 nights annually,^[123] but the last occurrences of temperatures below 10 °F (−12 °C) were December 24, 2022,^[123] and January 2014, eight years apart. Extremes range from −9 °F (−23 °C) on February 13, 1899 to 106 °F (41 °C) on June 30, 2012.^[123] Average dewpoints in the summer range from 63.7 °F (17.6 °C) in June to 67.8 °F (19.9 °C) in July.^[124]

Typical of the southeastern U.S., Atlanta receives abundant rainfall that is evenly distributed throughout the year, though late spring and early fall are somewhat drier. The average annual precipitation is 50.43 in (1,281 mm), while snowfall is typically light and rare with a normal of 2.2 inches (5.6 cm) per winter.^[123] The heaviest single snowfall occurred on January 23, 1940, with around 10 inches (25 cm) of snow.^[125] However, ice storms usually cause more problems than snowfall does, the most severe occurring on January 7, 1973.^[126] Tornadoes are rare in the city itself, but the March 14, 2008, EF2 tornado damaged prominent structures in downtown Atlanta.^[127]

More information Month, Jan ...

Climate data for Atlanta (Hartsfield–Jackson Int'l), 1991–2020 normals,^{[lower-alpha 1]} extremes 1878–present^{[lower-alpha 2]}
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °F (°C)	79 (26)	81 (27)	89 (32)	93 (34)	97 (36)	106 (41)	105 (41)	104 (40)	102 (39)	98 (37)	84 (29)	79 (26)	106 (41)
Mean maximum °F (°C)	70.3 (21.3)	73.5 (23.1)	80.8 (27.1)	84.7 (29.3)	89.6 (32.0)	94.3 (34.6)	95.8 (35.4)	95.9 (35.5)	91.9 (33.3)	85.0 (29.4)	77.5 (25.3)	71.5 (21.9)	97.3 (36.3)
Mean daily maximum °F (°C)	54.0 (12.2)	58.2 (14.6)	65.9 (18.8)	73.8 (23.2)	81.1 (27.3)	87.1 (30.6)	90.1 (32.3)	89.0 (31.7)	83.9 (28.8)	74.4 (23.6)	64.1 (17.8)	56.2 (13.4)	73.2 (22.9)
Daily mean °F (°C)	44.8 (7.1)	48.5 (9.2)	55.6 (13.1)	63.2 (17.3)	71.2 (21.8)	77.9 (25.5)	80.9 (27.2)	80.2 (26.8)	74.9 (23.8)	64.7 (18.2)	54.2 (12.3)	47.3 (8.5)	63.6 (17.6)
Mean daily minimum °F (°C)	35.6 (2.0)	38.9 (3.8)	45.3 (7.4)	52.5 (11.4)	61.3 (16.3)	68.6 (20.3)	71.8 (22.1)	71.3 (21.8)	65.9 (18.8)	54.9 (12.7)	44.2 (6.8)	38.4 (3.6)	54.1 (12.3)
Mean minimum °F (°C)	17.3 (−8.2)	23.2 (−4.9)	28.1 (−2.2)	36.9 (2.7)	47.6 (8.7)	59.9 (15.5)	65.6 (18.7)	64.5 (18.1)	53.4 (11.9)	38.7 (3.7)	29.2 (−1.6)	23.8 (−4.6)	15.2 (−9.3)
Record low °F (°C)	−8 (−22)	−9 (−23)	10 (−12)	25 (−4)	37 (3)	39 (4)	53 (12)	55 (13)	36 (2)	28 (−2)	3 (−16)	0 (−18)	−9 (−23)
Average precipitation inches (mm)	4.59 (117)	4.55 (116)	4.68 (119)	3.81 (97)	3.56 (90)	4.54 (115)	4.75 (121)	4.30 (109)	3.82 (97)	3.28 (83)	3.98 (101)	4.57 (116)	50.43 (1,281)
Average snowfall inches (cm)	1.0 (2.5)	0.4 (1.0)	0.4 (1.0)	0.0 (0.0)	0.0 (0.0)	0.0 (0.0)	0.0 (0.0)	0.0 (0.0)	0.0 (0.0)	0.0 (0.0)	0.0 (0.0)	0.4 (1.0)	2.2 (5.6)
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.01 in)	11.1	10.4	10.5	8.9	9.4	11.1	12.0	10.2	7.3	6.8	7.9	10.7	116.3
Average snowy days (≥ 0.01 in)	0.7	0.3	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.4	1.5
Average relative humidity (%)	67.6	63.4	62.4	61.0	67.2	69.8	74.4	74.8	73.9	68.5	68.1	68.4	68.3
Average dew point °F (°C)	29.3 (−1.5)	30.9 (−0.6)	38.5 (3.6)	45.7 (7.6)	56.1 (13.4)	63.7 (17.6)	67.8 (19.9)	67.5 (19.7)	62.1 (16.7)	49.6 (9.8)	41.0 (5.0)	33.1 (0.6)	48.8 (9.3)
Mean monthly sunshine hours	164.0	171.7	220.5	261.2	288.6	284.8	273.8	258.6	227.5	238.5	185.1	164.0	2,738.3
Percent possible sunshine	52	56	59	67	67	66	63	62	61	68	59	53	62
Average ultraviolet index	2.8	4.1	6.1	7.9	9.1	9.7	9.9	9.2	7.4	5.2	3.3	2.5	6.4
Source 1: NOAA (relative humidity, dew point and sun 1961–1990)^[122]^[123]^[124]
Source 2: Extremes^[129] UV Index Today (1995 to 2022)^[130]

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More information Climate data for Atlanta, Month ...

Climate data for Atlanta
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Mean daily daylight hours	10.2	11.0	12.0	13.1	13.9	14.4	14.1	13.4	12.4	11.3	10.4	9.9	12.175
Average Ultraviolet index	3	5	6	8	10	11	11	10	8	6	4	3	6.8
Source: Weather Atlas^[131]

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