Western Hemisphere

The Western Hemisphere is the half of Earth located west of the Prime Meridian and east of the 180th meridian, with the Eastern Hemisphere constituting the other half. Geographically, it includes the Americas, except for some Aleutian Islands southwest of mainland Alaska; the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa, including their islands; the extreme eastern tip of Russia and its islands; many territories in Oceania; and a large portion of Antarctica. The center of this hemisphere lies in the Pacific Ocean at the intersection of the 90th meridian west and the Equator, near the Galápagos Islands, with Genovesa Island being the nearest land. Canada is the largest country entirely within the hemisphere, covering 9,984,670 square kilometers.

Fifteen independent island nations have no land borders: Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Cape Verde, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Iceland, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Tonga, and Trinidad and Tobago. Ten African countries are entirely within the hemisphere, with Mauritania being the largest at 1,030,000 square kilometers; five more African countries are partially included. Portugal is the only mainland European country entirely within the hemisphere, while Spain has the most mainland European land in it, though a moderate portion of Spain’s population lives east of the prime meridian. The highest mountain is Aconcagua in Argentina at 6,960.8 meters.

Temperature records

The tallest freestanding structure is the CN Tower in Toronto at 553.3 meters, and the tallest building is One World Trade Center in New York City at 541.3 meters. Some sources use alternative definitions, such as the 20th meridian west and the 160th meridian east, to exclude European and African mainlands while still including some associated islands, but no hemisphere can include all of the Americas while excluding all land outside them. The lowest temperature recorded outside Antarctica in the hemisphere was −69.6°C in Greenland on December 22, 1991, which is also the Northern Hemisphere’s lowest. The highest temperature recorded in the hemisphere was 56.7°C in Death Valley, California, on July 10, 1913, which is the highest ever recorded on Earth.