The Archdale 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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4.72 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1921. The next wettest, 4.18 inches, fell in 1940.
Archdale’s center stands about 870 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 720 ft to 930 ft, a difference of 210 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Three Hat Mountain, about 1,220 ft, 14 miles southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Metamorphosed Granitic Rock (metagranite), from the Neoproterozoic to Middle Cambrian, 520 to 650 million years old.
The section below crosses 5 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 40×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Metagranite. Age: Neoproterozoic to Middle Cambrian, 520 to 650 million years old. About 17 mi of the line.
Slate, argillite. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Metabasalt. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Granitic. Age: Late Mississippian to Permian, 265 to 325 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Slate, argillite. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 0.9 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 Archdale reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of Muddy Creek, the Deep River and the Cape Fear: about 300 river miles.
190 miles of the trip are on the Cape Fear.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Archdale; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Archdale has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 89° in July; winter nights fall to about 32° in January. About 48 inches of rain fall in a normal year, with about 2 inches of snow.
On November 14 Archdale normally reaches 63° and falls to 41°. The record high is 80°, in 1931; the record low 19°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 1.54 in, fell in 1940.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1921 at High Point, 4 miles north. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
