The Fifty-Six 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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6.47 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1924. The next wettest, 5.11 inches, fell in 2003.
Fifty-Six’s center stands about 930 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 500 ft to 1,050 ft, a difference of 550 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Strand Knob, about 1,840 ft, 10 miles southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Boone Formation (limestone), from the Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old.
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 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.
Limestone. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 10 mi of the line.
Sandstone, dolostone. Age: Middle Ordovician, 459 to 471 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Sandstone, shale, 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 2 mi of the line.
Limestone. Age: Middle Ordovician to Late Ordovician, 445 to 471 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 0.9 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 Fifty-Six reaches the Gulf of America by way of Grassy Creek, South Sylamore Creek, the White River and the Mississippi: about 970 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 Fifty-Six; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Fifty-Six has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 91° in July; winter nights fall to about 28° in January. About 52 inches of rain fall in a normal year, with about 5 inches of snow.
On November 14 Fifty-Six normally reaches 61° and falls to 39°. The record high is 79°, in 1990; the record low 12°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 0.83 in, fell in 1993.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1924 at Mountain View, 11 miles southeast, 210 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
