Geography and Environment
The city is located in the central Mexican highlands 2,239 meters above sea level, in a valley of the same name, from which the Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl volcanoes can be seen in the distance. The main elevations in the municipality are El Cerro Ostol at 2,460 meters and El Cerro Tepepan at 2,320 meters.
The main river in the municipality is the Zahuapan, which is part of the Balsas River region and the basin of the Atoyac River. Other rivers include the Huizcalotla, Negros, Tlacuetla and Lixcatlat. There are remnants of the former lake of Acuitlapilco as well. Other sources of fresh water include a spring in Acuitlapilco and a stream in Tepehitec which runs during the rainy season.
The climate is temperate and semi-moist with most rain in the summer. The average annual high temperatures is 24.3C and the average low is 7.2.
The higher elevations of the municipality have forests of pine, holm oak and white cedar. The mid range elevations are mostly secondary vegetation dominated by bush and low growing trees. The flat areas are dominated by a number of dry tolerate plants such as agave, nopal cactus and grasses. Because of the expansion of the urban area, the municipally only has small mammals such as rabbits, squirrels and opossums, along with some species of birds and reptiles as wildlife.
| Climate data for Tlaxcala (1951-2010) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 28.4 (83.1) |
30.5 (86.9) |
35.0 (95.0) |
34.0 (93.2) |
39.2 (102.6) |
34.0 (93.2) |
30.0 (86.0) |
31.0 (87.8) |
29.8 (85.6) |
36.5 (97.7) |
29.0 (84.2) |
30.0 (86.0) |
39.2 (102.6) |
| Average high °C (°F) | 22.0 (71.6) |
23.5 (74.3) |
25.8 (78.4) |
27.3 (81.1) |
27.5 (81.5) |
25.4 (77.7) |
24.4 (75.9) |
24.6 (76.3) |
23.9 (75.0) |
24.2 (75.6) |
23.5 (74.3) |
22.3 (72.1) |
24.5 (76.1) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 12.4 (54.3) |
13.6 (56.5) |
15.8 (60.4) |
17.6 (63.7) |
18.6 (65.5) |
18.2 (64.8) |
17.3 (63.1) |
17.4 (63.3) |
17.1 (62.8) |
16.4 (61.5) |
14.4 (57.9) |
12.9 (55.2) |
16.0 (60.8) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 2.7 (36.9) |
3.7 (38.7) |
5.7 (42.3) |
8.0 (46.4) |
9.7 (49.5) |
11.0 (51.8) |
10.2 (50.4) |
10.2 (50.4) |
10.4 (50.7) |
8.6 (47.5) |
5.4 (41.7) |
3.6 (38.5) |
7.4 (45.3) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −5 (23.0) |
−4 (24.8) |
−1.9 (28.6) |
0.0 (32.0) |
2.5 (36.5) |
3.0 (37.4) |
4.0 (39.2) |
2.4 (36.3) |
−0.5 (31.1) |
−0.3 (31.5) |
−4.5 (23.9) |
−7.4 (18.7) |
−7.4 (18.7) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 8.2 (0.323) |
5.2 (0.205) |
10.2 (0.402) |
31.2 (1.228) |
75.9 (2.988) |
160.2 (6.307) |
156.5 (6.161) |
161.1 (6.343) |
139.0 (5.472) |
70.2 (2.764) |
11.3 (0.445) |
7.0 (0.276) |
836.0 (32.913) |
| Avg. precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) | 1.3 | 1.4 | 2.4 | 6.6 | 12.0 | 17.2 | 18.9 | 18.9 | 16.4 | 9.2 | 2.6 | 1.2 | 108.1 |
| Source: Servicio Meteorologico Nacional | |||||||||||||
Read more about this topic: Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala
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