The Kingston 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.
Kingston’s center stands about 1,570 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,320 ft to 2,130 ft, a difference of 810 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Wahzhazhe Summit, about 2,560 ft, 13 miles south.
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 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.
Shale, sandstone. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 12 mi of the line.
Limestone. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Sandstone, shale, limestone. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Sandstone, black-shale. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 0.9 mi of the line.
Sandstone, dolostone. Age: Middle Ordovician, 459 to 471 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 Kingston reaches the Gulf of America by way of Maxwell Creek, the Kings, the White River and the Mississippi: about 1,270 river miles.
Lake on the way: Table Rock Lake.
620 miles of the trip are on the Mississippi.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Kingston; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Kingston 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 Kingston 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, 25 miles northeast, 200 ft lower). NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.