Longitude And Latitude Of London

Cities Around the World past Latitude and Longitude

Every city in the globe has one thing in common: they each have a pair of coordinates, numbers that depict their location. While no cities can share both sets of coordinates (since information technology'southward the exact location of the city), many share one of the numbers that make up their coordinate pair.

These coordinates, called latitude and longitude, are used to create maps like the one beneath. In addition to the cities' exact locations, nosotros found their nearest latitude and longitude (within 5 degrees), and y'all tin filter the map by these ranges.

View Cities by Latitude & Longitude in a full screen map

Read on to find out more about breadth/longitude coordinates, and see some surprising commonalities when we look at cities with the same latitudes or longitudes.

What are Latitude and Longitude?

Earlier yous can interpret the map to a higher place, you need to know about the pair of numbers used to plot map coordinates: latitude and longitude.

Breadth is the number of degrees due north or south of the equator, the imaginary line that runs horizontally through the Earth.

Longitude is the number of degrees eastward or due west of the prime meridian, an even more imaginary line considering it was made upward.

Stand upwardly and imagine your feet correspond an exact point on World. Do you know which mode North is? Use one arm to indicate precisely North and position your other arm in the exact opposite direction. The line your pointing makes would be the longitudinal line for your location. Now move your arms to point East and West. The line formed by your arms is the latitudinal line for your location.

While breadth is determined by the equator, humans had to make up a midpoint for longitude. In 1851, Sir George Airy chose the observatory in Greenwich, England, an area of London, to be goose egg longitude. Xxx years afterward, 25 nations met to officially declare it the prime elevation.

Every point on Earth tin can be described by a number of degrees breadth and a number of degrees longitude. Like an algebraic plot, each number can be positive or negative. In other words, nosotros've taken a circular Earth and separated it into quadrants. The mid-point of these quadrants is 0 degrees latitude (the equator) and 0 degrees longitude (the North-South line that runs through Greenwich Observatory).

Latitude increases equally you go North, making the Northern Hemisphere positive latitude and the Southern Hemisphere negative breadth. Paris, for example, is at almost 48, 2. Latitude commonly comes first in the pairing. Latitude runs between 90 degrees Due south (-90) and 90 degrees North, both extremes coming at the Earth'south poles.

Longitude increases as y'all go E, making Eastern Hemisphere (i.due east., most of Europe) positive longitude and the Western Hemisphere negative longitude. New York, for example, is at most 40, -73. Information technology'south N of the equator and W of the prime top. Longitude runs from 180 degrees West (-180) to 180 degrees Due east. Since longitude wraps effectually the Earth, -180 and 180 are the same line, on the opposite side from the prime meridian.

Using the map, tin can you notice some cities in the southeastern hemisphere? Southwestern? Which "quadrant" practise y'all live in?

Cities on the Equator and the Prime Summit

While much of the worth is solidly inside hemisphere quadrants, there are many cities that straddle one of the goose egg points. These cities, by definition, must exist either along the equator or the prime meridian (i.eastward., have a similar longitude to London).

The map shows 22 cities that are within ii and a half degrees of the equator. You can find them by using the group part in the lower left corner of the map. Choose "Well-nigh Latitude" and then cull the five to -10 range. Or, search the map for "0" and choose "0 (Virtually Latitude)."

Macapá, Brazil; Quito, Ecuador; Padang, Indonesia; Libreville, Gabon; Kampala, Republic of uganda

To get even more specific, we narrowed down to 11 cities that are less than a degree abroad from Earth'south horizontal midpoint. The closest to the equator is Pontianak in Indonesia, whose city heart is inside one second (one/60th of a degree) of cipher degrees latitude.

Here are all 11 of the places within a degree of the equator:

Macapá, Brazil
São Tomé, São Tomé and Príncipe
Libreville, Gabonese republic
Entebbe, Uganda
Kampala, Republic of uganda
Pekanbaru, Indonesia
Quito, Ecuador
Kismayo, Somalia
Padang, Republic of indonesia
Pontianak, Indonesia
Yaren District, Nauru

Since zip longitude is within densely populated Europe, there are more places that are close to this homo-created coordinate. The closest, of course, is London—or Greenwich, specifically. There are 44 cities on the map that are closest to 0 longitude. Notwithstanding, there are but a dozen that are less than one degree from zero.

Greenwich, England; Accra, Ghana; Valencia, Spain; Bordeaux, France; Le Havre, France

Hither are all 12 places within a caste of the prime tiptop:

Accra, Ghana
Tamale, Ghana
Zaragoza, Kingdom of spain
Valencia, Kingdom of spain
Lleida, Spain
Bordeaux, French republic
Brighton and Hove, England
London, England
Greenwich, England
Le Havre, France
Cambridge, England
Peterborough, England

A much less populated place? The opposite of the prime acme. At either 180 or -180 (it'due south the aforementioned place), you'll find but two places. One is far north and some other in the south: Rabi Island, Fiji; Anadyr, Russia. Move the map effectually and meet if you lot can find them!

Famous Cities and Their Coordinate Partners

Ah, Paris. The City of Lights. A identify for lovers. Aye, Paris seems like a magical place. Yet, it is on the same latitude as Seattle, a place best known for… rain. While Seattle is slightly rainier than Paris, it'south non by much. Similarly, London gets a bad rap and information technology's merely a few degrees north of Paris.

Surely New York City has a similar reality distortion field, causing information technology to appear better than other places of similar latitude? At xl degrees North of the equator, the snowy-wintered New York is at a similar longitude to… Portugal, Espana, and the residual of the beautiful Mediterranean. To be off-white, Sendai, Japan, is too effectually 40 degrees breadth, and information technology has nearly freezing temperatures in January.

Longitudinally, New York is effectually the aforementioned at 73 degrees West as most of the country of Republic of chile. Interestingly, South America is almost entirely eastward of the United States. The fourth dimension zones range from UTC -05:00 (aforementioned as Eastern time) to UTC -02:00.

Speaking of South America, São Paulo, the largest city in the Southern Hemisphere, is 22 degrees South of the equator. That puts information technology similar to Johannesburg (the capital of South Africa) and Brisbane (the third-largest urban center in Australia). On the longitude scale, much of Brazil has no countries N or Due south of it. Seriously, check the map! The only not-Brazilian place at 50 degrees West is the tiny and remote Qaqortoq, Greenland.

The Far Due north and Southward

Locations in the North and South are best known for their extremes. The poles are each covered in snow yr round, and then expect common cold temperatures in these cities to the far Due north and South.

The Northernmost metropolis in the globe is Alert, Nunavut, Canada, at more than 82 degrees Northward. That puts Alarm merely 550 miles (885 km) from the North Pole. In Europe, Norway'due south Ny-Ålesund is over 78 degrees to a higher place the equator. And Alaska is home to the northernmost U.S. city of Barrow, at 71 degrees latitude.

The Southernmost city in the globe is Puerto Williams, Chile, and information technology'southward nearly 10 degrees farther south than any other continent's southern city. At 54 degrees below the equator, it may non seem as far south every bit you expect. However, Antarctica reaches out to about 60 degrees latitude, and then there's not much room for inhabited cities much closer.

Other far-Southern cities include Invercargill, New Zealand (46 degrees South) and Greatcoat Town, South Africa (at -33 degrees latitude).