About Berks County - courtesy of Christopher Benedict RE/MAX Main Line

As quoted from the official Berks County homepage:
LOCATION & SETTING
"Berks County is an urban area of 373,638 persons (2000 Census), situated in southeastern Pennsylvania. The county seat, which is the city of Reading, is 56 miles northwest of Philadelphia and the heart of the Delaware Valley region, which is one of the leading industrial and trade complexes in the nation. Schuylkill County borders the County on the north, on the west by Lebanon and Lancaster Counties, on the east by Lehigh County, and on the south by Chester and Montgomery Counties. Despite its closeness to the Philadelphia metropolitan area, it is considered part of Pennsylvania's Dutch Country. (SOURCE: Berks County Pennsylvania, Economic Resource Profile) Through numerous federal and state highways and turnpikes, the County is linked to other major cities such as New York (125 miles) and Baltimore (97 miles). The County is a diamond-shaped area of 864 square miles. Sections of the Blue and South Mountains, two ridges of the Appalachian Mountain chain, form its northern and southern boundaries with elevations averaging about 640 feet above sea level. The Schuylkill River and several of its main tributaries drain almost the entire county. The mean annual temperature is 54.3 degrees Fahrenheit. The fall and winter average is 38.9 degrees; the spring and summer average is 74.8 degrees. Average annual rainfall is 41.4 inches, and average annual snowfall is 30.6 inches."