The Helena 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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5.72 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1871. The next wettest, 5.59 inches, fell in 1914.
Helena’s center stands about 20 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 10 ft to 60 ft, a difference of 50 ft: nearly flat ground.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Coastal deposits (fine-detrital, coarse-detrital), from the Holocene, less than 12,000 years old.
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.
Fine-detrital, coarse-detrital. Age: Holocene, less than 12,000 years old. About 22 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 Helena reaches the Gulf of America by way of Black Creek, the Escatawpa and the Singing: about 18 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Helena; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Helena has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 91° in July; winter nights fall to about 41° in January. About 67 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Helena normally reaches 70° and falls to 48°. The record high is 82°, in 2008; the record low 28°, in 1969. The most rain on this date, 1.55 in, fell in 1929.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1871 from the Mobile Area threaded record (Mobile Regional Airport, 20 miles northeast, 200 ft higher). NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
