The Brevard 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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Mostly sunny; warmer
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5.12 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1902. The next wettest, 4.60 inches, fell in 1935.
Brevard’s center stands about 2,220 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 2,090 ft to 3,340 ft, a difference of 1,250 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Black Balsam Knob, about 6,190 ft, 10 miles northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Henderson Gneiss, from the Early Cambrian, 524 to 525 million years old.
The section below crosses 10 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 5×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Gneiss, mica-schist. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Gneiss. Age: Early Cambrian, 524 to 525 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Biotite-gneiss. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Mica-schist. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Granodiorite, quartz-diorite. Age: Middle Devonian, 390 to 391 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Gneiss. Age: Early Devonian, 409 to 410 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. 4 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 Brevard reaches the Gulf of America by way of the French Broad, the Tennessee, the Ohio and the Mississippi: about 1,850 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Guntersville Lake, White Lake (historical), Pickwick Lake and Cummings Lake.
970 miles of the trip are on the Mississippi.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Brevard; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Brevard has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 83° in July; winter nights fall to about 25° in January. A normal year brings about 7 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 76 inches of water.
On November 14 Brevard normally reaches 60° and falls to 32°. The record high is 79°, in 1999; the record low 14°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 1.71 in, fell in 1961.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1902 at Brevard, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
