The North Potomac 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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81° on Nov. 15, 1993, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1960. Next is 80° in 1985.
North Potomac’s center stands about 270 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 160 ft to 460 ft, a difference of 300 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Sugar Loaf Mountain, about 1,270 ft, 14 miles north-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Wissahickon Formation (Undivided) (muscovite-schist), from the Proterozoic, 542 to 2,500 million years old.
The section below crosses 4 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 36×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Schist. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Muscovite-schist. Age: Proterozoic, 542 to 2,500 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Phyllite. Age: Proterozoic, 542 to 2,500 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Serpentinite. Age: Proterozoic to Paleozoic, 252 to 2,500 million years old. About 0.3 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 North Potomac reaches Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Muddy Branch and the Potomac: about 140 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of North Potomac; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
North Potomac has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 88° in July; winter nights fall to about 25° in January. A normal year brings about 21 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 43 inches of water.
On November 14 North Potomac normally reaches 57° and falls to 36°. The record high is 80°, in 1985; the record low 13°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 1.90 in, fell in 1972.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1960 from the Sterling-Dulles Airport Area threaded record (Washington Dulles International Airport, 14 miles southwest). NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
