When looking at the map of the world, I had always imagined that Europe and the United States were almost equivalent in latitude; I thought that Scandinavia was as far north as Alaska and Italy was as far south as Florida, but I recently compared their latitudes and discovered that I was quite wrong, Europe is quite far north!
It turns out that the northernmost point of the lower 48, Angle Inlet, Minnesota, is only about as far north as southern Germany and the southernmost point of the lower 48, Key West, Florida, is as far south as southern Egypt.
Another interesting way to look at the latitude difference is comparing cities in the United States with those in Europe with an equivalent latitude. Athens and San Francisco have similar latitudes, Rome and Providence are nearly identical, and Paris is only a little further north than Minot; if you wish to look outside the contiguous US: Reykjavík is similar to Fairbanks and Jedda, Saudi Arabia, is equivalent to Honolulu. It can be entertaining to take the city or town in which you reside and find what cities across the world have the same latitude.
If you want to see the United States superimposed on Europe and north Africa, this link will take you to a webpage which has been prepared such that the United States is positioned at its actual latitude, but shifted east to compare with Europe.
Interestingly, the average temperature of Europe is approximately 49.5ºF and the average temperature of the United States including Alaska and Hawaii is about 52.0ºF; despite the fact that Europe is a bit further north than most of the United States, there is surprisingly only about a 2.5 degree difference in average temperature between the two. This could be due to the fact that Europe has a lot of seas and the United States has vast expanses of interior which experience harsh winters, particularly in the north central states and Alaska.
What is the most interesting city in the world with a latitude similar to that of a place you have been?
Onward American 