The Dahlonega 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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82° on Nov. 13, 2020, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1943. Next is 79° in 2006.
Dahlonega’s center stands about 1,410 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,160 ft to 1,590 ft, a difference of 430 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Blood Mountain, about 4,440 ft, 15 miles north.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Amphibolitic Schist/ Amphibolite-Metagraywacke/ Mica Schist, from the Precambrian to Paleozoic.
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 9×. 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, quartzite. Age: Precambrian to Paleozoic. About 7 mi of the line.
Amphibolite, biotite-gneiss, mica-schist. Age: Precambrian to Paleozoic. About 5 mi of the line.
Biotite-gneiss. Age: Precambrian to Paleozoic. About 3 mi of the line.
Gneiss. Age: Precambrian to Paleozoic. About 3 mi of the line.
Mica-schist, amphibolite. Age: Precambrian to Paleozoic. About 3 mi of the line.
Schist. 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. 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 Dahlonega reaches the Gulf of America by way of Tanyard Branch, Yahoola Creek, the Chestatee, the Chattahoochee and the Apalachicola: about 490 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Walter F George Reservoir, Woodmen Youth Camp Lake, West Point Lake and Bartletts Ferry Lake.
130 miles of the trip are on the Chattahoochee.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Dahlonega; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Dahlonega has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 86° in July; winter nights fall to about 27° in January. About 65 inches of rain fall in a normal year, with about 1 inch of snow.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1943 at Cleveland, 13 miles east-northeast, 160 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
