The Missouri River is a right tributary of the Mississippi and is the second longest tributary in the world. Information about what constitutes Missouri is given in the article.
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Missouri River System
You can find the Missouri River on a map of North America. Its source lies in the Rocky Mountains, from where it descends to the Great Plains, then crosses the Central Plains and flows into the Mississippi on the outskirts of the city of St. Louis.
The length of the river exceeds 3.7 thousand km, there are more than 95 large tributaries and several hundred minor ones. Major tributaries are Yellowstone, Platte, Kansas.
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In the 19th century, the Missouri and its tributaries became a transportation "corridor" for settlers moving to the western coasts.
The river basin occupies almost 1.4 million km 2 , the state of Nebraska (entirely), parts of 9 American and 2 Canadian states are located on its territory.
Climate
The Missouri Basin is located in an area of continental temperate climate, which differs in different areas. In the mountainous part, thunderstorms are frequent in summer, the temperature is +20+25°С, in winter frosts reach -25-30°С, winter precipitation of 250-500 mm/year prevails. On the plains, summers are warm and humid, winters with thaws, temperature 0-8°С, precipitation 650-750 mm/year. In the lower reaches, frosts do not occur every year, in summer it is hot (+25+30, up to +45°С), the amount of precipitation is more than 1000 mm/year.
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Flora and Fauna
Missouri is characterized by steppe and forest-steppe landscapes with fertile soils, which allows growing corn and wheat, so natural steppe communities have not been preserved.
Since the end of the 19th century, dams have been built to operate hydroelectric power plants, protect against floods and irrigate fields.