Oklahoma City is the capital and principle city of the state of Oklahoma, located in the Frontier Country region of the state. Oklahoma City is the primary city of the Oklahoma City-Shawnee-Stillwater Combined Statistical Area containing most of central Oklahoma. Oklahoma City is the largest city in the state, as well as its political, cultural, and economic engine. The city is the nation 's third largest city in land area (608 sq miles), just behind Jacksonville FL (759 sq miles) and way behind Anchorage AK (1698 sq miles). The city is the 29th largest city in population in the nation (506,132 in the 2000 census), and the largest city in the 5 "plains states" (Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and North and South Dakota). Oklahoma City lies in a temperate, sub-humid climate, with frequent variations in weather daily and seasonally, except during the consistently hot and humid summer months. Consistent winds, usually from the south or south-southeast during the summer, help temper the hotter weather. Consistent northerly winds during the winter can intensify cold periods. The summer can be extremely hot, as was evident in 2006 with a few-weeks span of nearly 110 °F (43 °C) temperatures. The average temperature is 60.0 °F (15.6 °C), though colder though the winter months, with a 37.0 °F (2.8 °C) average in January, and warmer during the summer months, with an 82.0 °F (27.8 °C) average in July. The city receives about 33.3 inches (850 mm) of rain annually and 9.0 inches (230 mm) of snow. http://wikitravel.org/en/Oklahoma_City