The Oxford plate. Relief from Copernicus GLO-30; rivers and lakes from USGS NHD; watersheds from the USGS Watershed Boundary Dataset; roads and city limits from Census TIGER 2024.
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4.61 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1903. The next wettest, 4.01 inches, fell in 2018.
Oxford’s center stands about 670 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 590 ft to 1,570 ft, a difference of 980 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Cheaha Mountain, about 2,420 ft, 9 miles south.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Chilhowee Group undifferentiated (arkose, conglomerate-sandstone, mudstone), from the Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old.
The section below crosses 5 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 13×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Arkose, conglomerate-sandstone, mudstone. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 9 mi of the line.
Dolostone, limestone. Age: Cambrian to Ordovician, 445 to 542 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Mudstone, shale, siltstone. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Dolostone. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Dolostone, limestone. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale.
Heights from Copernicus GLO-90 (a surface model: it includes buildings and tree canopy); summits from USGS GNIS; rivers from USGS NHDPlus HR; rock from the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation.
A raindrop that lands in Oxford reaches Mobile Bay and the Gulf of America by way of Choccolocco Creek, the Coosa, the Alabama and the Mobile: about 510 river miles.
Lake on the way: Lay Lake.
310 miles of the trip are on the Alabama.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Oxford; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Oxford has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 90° in July; winter nights fall to about 34° in January. About 52 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Oxford normally reaches 66° and falls to 41°. The record high is 81°, in 1955; the record low 22°, in 1904. The most rain on this date, 1.12 in, fell in 1957.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1903 at Anniston Metropolitan Airport, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
