The Alto 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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3.64 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1919. The next wettest, 3.45 inches, fell in 2009.
Alto’s center stands about 1,390 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 860 ft to 1,540 ft, a difference of 680 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Yonah Mountain, about 3,160 ft, 14 miles northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Biotitic Gneiss / Mica Schist/ Amphibolite (amphibolite, biotite-gneiss, mica-schist), from the Precambrian to Paleozoic.
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 25×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Amphibolite, biotite-gneiss, mica-schist. Age: Precambrian to Paleozoic. About 11 mi of the line.
Hornblende-gneiss, amphibolite. Age: Precambrian to Paleozoic. About 5 mi of the line.
Metagraywacke, mica-schist. Age: Precambrian to Paleozoic. About 3 mi of the line.
Gneiss. Age: Precambrian to Paleozoic. About 3 mi of the line.
Gneiss. Age: Precambrian to Paleozoic. About 2 mi of the line.
Quartzite, biotite-gneiss. Age: Precambrian to Paleozoic. About 1 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.
Alto straddles the Eastern Continental Divide. Rain on the northwest side runs to the Gulf of America; most of the rest goes to the Atlantic Ocean.
From the center of town, a raindrop reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of the Hudson, the Broad and the Savannah: about 350 river miles. One that lands on the northwest side reaches the Gulf of America by way of Little Mud Creek, Mud Creek, the Chattahoochee and the Apalachicola: about 500 river miles.
250 miles of the trip are on the Savannah.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Alto; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Alto has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 86° in July; winter nights fall to about 30° in January. About 59 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Alto normally reaches 61° and falls to 39°. The record high is 78°, in 1931; the record low 19°, in 1982. The most rain on this date, 1.21 in, fell in 1962.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1919 at Cornelia, 4 miles northeast. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
