The Bessemer City 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.
Sunny
Mostly sunny; warmer
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny
3.64 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1890. The next wettest, 3.10 inches, fell in 1940.
Bessemer City’s center stands about 900 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 730 ft to 1,020 ft, a difference of 290 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Crowders Mountain, about 1,570 ft, 4 miles south.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Metamorphosed Quartz Diorite (metadiorite), from the Neoproterozoic to Paleozoic, 252 to 1,000 million years old.
The section below crosses 8 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 30×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Mica-schist. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Mica-schist. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Mica-schist. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Schist. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Granite. Age: Early Mississippian, 351 to 352 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Metadiorite. Age: Neoproterozoic to Paleozoic, 252 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. 2 smaller units along the line are not listed.
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 Bessemer City reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of Long Creek, the South Fork Catawba, the Catawba, the Wateree, the Congaree, the Santee and the South Santee: about 310 river miles.
Lake on the way: Lib Pines Lake.
90 miles of the trip are on the Wateree.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Bessemer City; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Bessemer City has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 91° in July; winter nights fall to about 31° in January. About 44 inches of rain fall in a normal year, with about 1 inch of snow.
On November 14 Bessemer City normally reaches 64° and falls to 40°. The record high is 80°, in 1999; the record low 21°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 1.23 in, fell in 1940.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1890 at Gastonia, 8 miles east, 200 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
