The Bethesda 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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6.48 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1941. The next wettest, 4.12 inches, fell in 1958.
Bethesda’s center stands about 640 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 290 ft to 660 ft, a difference of 370 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Irons Mountain, about 1,600 ft, 13 miles west-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Pitkin Limestone, Fayetteville Shale (including the Wedington Sandstone member), and Batesville Sandstone (including the Hindsville Limestone Member) (sandstone, shale, limestone), from the Carboniferous, 324 to 359 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 17×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Sandstone, shale, limestone. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 11 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Limestone. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 2 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 Bethesda reaches the Gulf of America by way of Betsey Gill Creek, the White River and the Mississippi: about 930 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 Bethesda; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Bethesda has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 88° in July; winter nights fall to about 26° in January. About 50 inches of rain fall in a normal year, with about 4 inches of snow.
On November 14 Bethesda normally reaches 58° and falls to 37°. The record high is 86°, in 1955; the record low 16°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 1.91 in, fell in 1958.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1941 at Batesville Lvstk, 3 miles north. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
