The Empire 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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3.22 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1891. The next wettest, 3.14 inches, fell in 1997.
Empire’s center stands about 390 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 280 ft to 440 ft, a difference of 160 ft: gently rolling country.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Neogene undifferentiated (sandstone, claystone), from the Tertiary Neogene, 2.6 to 23 million years old.
The section below crosses 3 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.
Sandstone, claystone. Age: Tertiary Neogene, 2.6 to 23 million years old. About 16 mi of the line.
Limestone. Age: Oligocene, 23 to 34 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Fine-detrital. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old. 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.
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 Empire reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of Walton Creek, the Little Ocmulgee, the Ocmulgee and the Altamaha: about 200 river miles.
130 miles of the trip are on the Altamaha.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Empire; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Empire has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 91° in July; winter nights fall to about 38° in January. About 47 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Empire normally reaches 69° and falls to 46°. The record high is 85°, in 1902; the record low 27°, in 1968. The most rain on this date, 3.07 in, fell in 2018.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1891 at Eastman 1 W, 11 miles south-southeast. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
