The Waldo 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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4.35 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1888. The next wettest, 3.64 inches, fell in 2018.
Waldo’s center stands about 740 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 610 ft to 1,060 ft, a difference of 450 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Cheaha Mountain, about 2,420 ft, 15 miles east-northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Talladega Group; Lay Dam Formation (phyllite, metaclastic), from the Silurian to Devonian, 359 to 445 million years old.
The section below crosses 8 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 14×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Phyllite, metaclastic. Age: Silurian to Devonian, 359 to 445 million years old. About 14 mi of the line.
Dolostone, limestone. Age: Cambrian to Ordovician, 445 to 542 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Dolostone, limestone. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Mudstone, shale, siltstone. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Quartzite, metaconglomerate. Age: Silurian to Devonian, 359 to 445 million years old. About 0.9 mi of the line.
Arkose, conglomerate-sandstone, mudstone. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 0.7 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 2 smaller units along the line are not listed.
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 Waldo reaches Mobile Bay and the Gulf of America by way of Drivers Branch, Talladega Creek, the Coosa, the Alabama and the Mobile: about 480 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 Waldo; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Waldo has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 91° in July; winter nights fall to about 30° in January. About 56 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Waldo normally reaches 65° and falls to 38°. The record high is 83°, in 1955; the record low 19°, in 2019. The most rain on this date, 2.10 in, fell in 1929.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1888 at Talladega, 7 miles west-northwest, 230 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
