The South Branch 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 cloudy
Mostly cloudy; warmer
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Mostly sunny
Partly cloudy
Chance of showers
Chance of showers
72° on Nov. 11, 2022, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1909. Next is 67° in 1953.
South Branch’s center stands about 1,090 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 850 ft to 1,300 ft, a difference of 450 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Briar Hill, about 1,740 ft, 12 miles north-northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Michigan Formation (shale), from the Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old.
The section below crosses 2 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 23×. 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. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 14 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 10 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 South Branch reaches Lake Michigan by way of the Pine River and the Manistee: about 45 river miles. From there it moves on through the Great Lakes, over Niagara Falls and down the St. Lawrence to the Atlantic.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of South Branch; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
South Branch has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 80° in July; winter nights fall to about 12° in January. About 35 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 South Branch normally reaches 44° and falls to 29°. The record high is 63°, in 1953; the record low 2°, in 1943. The most rain on this date, 0.88 in, fell in 1980.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1909 at Cadillac Wexford County Airport, 18 miles east-northeast, 220 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
