Being part of the province North-Holland, Amsterdam is located in the northwest of the Netherlands next to the provinces Utrecht and Flevoland. The river Amstel terminates in the city center into a large number of canals that eventually terminate in the IJ. Amsterdam is situated 2 meters above sea level.The surrounding land is flat as it is formed of large polders. To the southwest of the city lies a man-made forest called het Amsterdamse Bos. Amsterdam is connected to the North Sea through the long North Sea Canal.
Amsterdam is intensely urbanized, as is the urban area surrounding the city. Comprising 219.4 square kilometers of land, the city proper has a population density of 4457 inhabitants and 2275 houses per square kilometer. Parks and nature reserves make up 12% of Amsterdam’s land area.
Amsterdam enjoys a temperate climate, strongly influenced by its proximity to the North Sea to the west with prevailing north-western winds and gales. Winter temperatures are mild, seldom below 0°C. Amsterdam, as well as most of Noord-Holland province sits in USDA Hardiness zone 9, the northernmost such occurrence in continental Europe. Frosts merely occur during spells of eastern or northeastern winds from the inner European continent, i.e., from Scandinavia, Russia, and even Siberia. Still then, because Amsterdam is surrounded on three sides by major bodies of water, as well as having a significant heat island effect, nights rarely drop below -5°C, while it easily could be -12°C in Hilversum, 25 kilometres southeast. Summers are moderately warm but rarely hot. The average high in August is 22°C, and 30°C or higher is only measured on average on 3 days, placing Amsterdam in AHS Heat zone 2. Days with measurable precipitation are common, on average 175 days a year. Nevertheless, Amsterdam’s average annual precipitation is less than 760 mm. Most of this precipitation is protracted drizzle or light rain, making cloudy and damp days common during the cooler months, October through March. Only the occasional European windstorm may bring a lot of water at once, requiring all of it to be pumped out to higher grounds or to the seas around the city.
