Page "Ohio River" Paragraph 4

The Ohio River is a climatic transition area, as its water runs along the periphery of the humid subtropical and humid continental climate areas.

It is inhabited by fauna and flora of both climates.

In winter it regularly freezes over at Pittsburgh but rarely so as it travels further south toward Cincinnati and Louisville.

At Paducah, Kentucky in the south, near the Ohio ’ s confluence with the Mississippi, it is ice-free year round.

Paducah was founded there because it is the northernmost ice-free reach of the Ohio.

In his Notes on the State of Virginia published in 1781 – 82, Thomas Jefferson stated: " The Ohio is the most beautiful river on earth.

Its current gentle, waters clear, and bosom smooth and unbroken by rocks and rapids, a single instance only excepted.