The Cottondale 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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6.99 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1939. The next wettest, 3.92 inches, fell in 1951.
Cottondale’s center stands about 150 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 120 ft to 220 ft, a difference of 100 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Falling Water Hill, about 360 ft, 10 miles west-southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Alum Bluff Group (sand, clay), from the Middle Miocene to Early Pliocene, 3.6 to 16 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 64×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Sand, clay. Age: Middle Miocene to Early Pliocene, 3.6 to 16 million years old. About 11 mi of the line.
Limestone. Age: Late Eocene, 34 to 38 million years old. About 9 mi of the line.
Limestone. Age: Oligocene, 23 to 34 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Sand. Age: Late Pliocene, 2.6 to 3.6 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sand, clay. Age: Late Eocene, 34 to 38 million years old. About 0.4 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 Cottondale reaches the Gulf of America by way of Russ Mill Creek, Waddells Mill Creek, the Chipola and the Apalachicola: about 120 river miles.
85 miles of the trip are on the Chipola.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Cottondale; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Cottondale has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 93° in July; winter nights fall to about 38° in January. About 61 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Cottondale normally reaches 73° and falls to 46°. The record high is 86°, in 2015; the record low 26°, in 1963. The most rain on this date, 1.77 in, fell in 1957.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1939 at Chipley, 10 miles west. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
