The Morganton 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.
Sunny
Sunny; warmer
Mostly sunny
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Mostly sunny
4.72 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1892. The next wettest, 3.99 inches, fell in 2006.
Morganton’s center stands about 1,810 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,560 ft to 2,050 ft, a difference of 490 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Big Bald Mountain, about 4,100 ft, 9 miles south-southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Mica Schist/ Gneiss (mica-schist, gneiss), 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 8×. 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-schist. Age: Precambrian to Paleozoic. About 7 mi of the line.
Mica-schist, gneiss. Age: Precambrian to Paleozoic. About 7 mi of the line.
Mica-schist. Age: Precambrian to Paleozoic. About 4 mi of the line.
Biotite-schist. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Phyllite. Age: Precambrian to Paleozoic. About 1 mi of the line.
Metasandstone, metagraywacke, metasiltstone. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 0.7 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 Morganton reaches the Gulf of America by way of Hemptown Creek, the Toccoa, the Ocoee, the Hiwassee, the Tennessee, the Ohio and the Mississippi: about 1,610 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Guntersville Lake, White Lake (historical), Pickwick Lake and Cummings Lake.
970 miles of the trip are on the Mississippi.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Morganton; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Morganton has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 85° in July; winter nights fall to about 25° in January. About 60 inches of rain fall in a normal year, with about 3 inches of snow.
On November 14 Morganton normally reaches 61° and falls to 33°. The record high is 78°, in 1931; the record low 15°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 2.21 in, fell in 1957.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1892 at Blairsville Experiment Sta, 18 miles east, 140 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
