The Clayton 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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81° on Nov. 12, 1958, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1893. Next is 80° in 2020.
Clayton’s center stands about 1,940 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,640 ft to 3,400 ft, a difference of 1,760 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Yellow Bald, about 5,240 ft, 13 miles north-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Metagraywacke/ Mica Schist (metagraywacke, mica-schist), from the Precambrian to Paleozoic.
The section below crosses 7 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 5×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Metagraywacke, mica-schist. Age: Precambrian to Paleozoic. About 10 mi of the line.
Gneiss. Age: Precambrian to Paleozoic. About 4 mi of the line.
Biotite-gneiss. Age: Precambrian to Paleozoic. About 4 mi of the line.
Gneiss. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Biotite-gneiss. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Quartzite, mica-schist. Age: Precambrian to Paleozoic. About 0.8 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 1 smaller unit along the line are not listed.
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 Clayton reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of Scott Creek, Stekoa Creek, the Chattooga, the Tugaloo and the Savannah: about 360 river miles.
290 miles of the trip are on the Savannah.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Clayton; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Clayton has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 85° in July; winter nights fall to about 30° in January. About 72 inches of rain fall in a normal year, with about 2 inches of snow.
On November 14 Clayton normally reaches 61° and falls to 37°. The record high is 78°, in 1985; the record low 15°, in 1977. The most rain on this date, 2.85 in, fell in 1957.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1893 at Clayton 1 SSW, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
