The Helen 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.
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny; warmer
Mostly sunny
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Sunny
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Mostly sunny
82° on Nov. 13, 2020, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1943. Next is 79° in 2006.
Helen’s center stands about 1,440 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,350 ft to 2,550 ft, a difference of 1,200 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Brasstown Bald, about 4,770 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 8 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 7×. 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 9 mi of the line.
Amphibolite, biotite-gneiss, mica-schist. Age: Precambrian to Paleozoic. About 9 mi of the line.
Metagraywacke, mica-schist. Age: Precambrian to Paleozoic. About 2 mi of the line.
Mica-schist. Age: Precambrian to Paleozoic. About 2 mi of the line.
Hornblende-gneiss, amphibolite. Age: Precambrian to Paleozoic. About 2 mi of the line.
Gneiss. Age: Precambrian to Paleozoic. About 0.9 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 2 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 Helen reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Chattahoochee and the Apalachicola: about 520 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Walter F George Reservoir, Woodmen Youth Camp Lake, West Point Lake and Bartletts Ferry Lake.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Helen; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Helen 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, 8 miles south-southwest, 130 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
