The Benson 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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3.74 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1892. The next wettest, 3.31 inches, fell in 1926.
Benson’s center stands about 250 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 150 ft to 300 ft, a difference of 150 ft: gently rolling country.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Middendorf Formation (sand), from the Cretaceous, 66 to 145 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 56×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Sand. Age: Cretaceous, 66 to 145 million years old. About 19 mi of the line.
Sandstone, mudstone. Age: Cretaceous, 66 to 145 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Phyllite, schist. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 1 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 Benson reaches Pamlico Sound and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Hannah Creek, Mill Creek and the Neuse: about 180 river miles.
150 miles of the trip are on the Neuse.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Benson; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Benson has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 92° in July; winter nights fall to about 31° in January. About 49 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Benson normally reaches 65° and falls to 39°. The record high is 82°, in 1951; the record low 18°, in 1920. The most rain on this date, 1.25 in, fell in 2024.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1892 at Smithfield, 15 miles northeast, 100 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
