The Bellefonte 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.
3.15 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1892. The next wettest, 3.10 inches, fell in 1978.
Bellefonte’s center stands about 1,090 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 980 ft to 1,330 ft, a difference of 350 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Boat Mountain, about 2,220 ft, 6 miles south.
The section below crosses 6 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.
Limestone. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 12 mi of the line.
Sandstone, dolostone. Age: Middle Ordovician, 459 to 471 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Dolostone. Age: Early Ordovician, 471 to 487 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Sandstone, shale, limestone. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Shale, sandstone. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 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.
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 Bellefonte reaches the Gulf of America by way of Dry Branch, Huzzah Creek, Crooked Creek, the White River and the Mississippi: about 1,080 river miles.
620 miles of the trip are on the Mississippi.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Bellefonte; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Bellefonte has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 89° in July; winter nights fall to about 27° in January. About 44 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Bellefonte normally reaches 60° and falls to 38°. The record high is 80°, in 1955; the record low 5°, in 1908. The most rain on this date, 1.53 in, fell in 1993.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1892 from the Harrison Area threaded record (Harrison Boone County Airport, 8 miles northwest, 280 ft higher). NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.