The Columbus 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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3.54 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1891. The next wettest, 3.24 inches, fell in 2006.
Columbus’s center stands about 240 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 200 ft to 490 ft, a difference of 290 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Holliday Hill, about 520 ft, 8 miles southeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Stream alluvium (fine-detrital), from the Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old.
The section below crosses 9 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 39×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Biotite-gneiss. Age: Precambrian to Paleozoic. About 6 mi of the line.
Fine-detrital. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Clay, sand. Age: Cretaceous, 66 to 145 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Sand, clay, gravel. Age: Cretaceous, 66 to 145 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Sand, clay. Age: Cretaceous, 66 to 145 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Clay, sand. Age: Cretaceous, 66 to 145 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 3 smaller units 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 Columbus reaches the Gulf of America by way of Bull Creek, the Chattahoochee and the Apalachicola: about 270 river miles.
Lake on the way: Walter F George Reservoir.
110 miles of the trip are on the Apalachicola.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Columbus; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Columbus has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 93° in July; winter nights fall to about 38° in January. About 49 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Columbus normally reaches 69° and falls to 46°. The record high is 84°, in 1924; the record low 20°, in 1907. The most rain on this date, 1.85 in, fell in 1957.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1891 from the Columbus Area threaded record (Columbus Metropolitan Airport, 5 miles northeast, 150 ft higher). NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
