The Rockbridge 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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3.52 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1940. The next wettest, 3.36 inches, fell in 2009.
Rockbridge’s center stands about 540 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 470 ft to 550 ft, a difference of 80 ft: gently rolling country.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Carbondale Formation (shale, sandstone, coal), from the Middle Pennsylvanian to Late Pennsylvanian, 304 to 315 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.
Shale, sandstone, coal. Age: Middle Pennsylvanian to Late Pennsylvanian, 304 to 315 million years old. About 15 mi of the line.
Shale, limestone. Age: Late Pennsylvanian, 304 to 307 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Shale, sandstone. Age: Early Pennsylvanian to Middle Pennsylvanian, 307 to 324 million years old. About 3 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 Rockbridge reaches the Gulf of America by way of Taylor Creek, Macoupin Creek, the Illinois and the Mississippi: about 1,250 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Rockbridge; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Rockbridge has a hot-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 87° in July; winter nights fall to about 19° in January. A normal year brings about 12 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 42 inches of water.
On November 14 Rockbridge normally reaches 53° and falls to 34°. The record high is 80°, in 1999; the record low 8°, in 1940. The most rain on this date, 1.40 in, fell in 1993.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1940 at Jerseyville 2 SW, 14 miles south-southwest. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
