The Cary 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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4.36 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1887. The next wettest, 3.93 inches, fell in 1920.
Cary’s center stands about 500 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 300 ft to 520 ft, a difference of 220 ft: rolling country.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Metavolcanic-Epiclastic Rock (metasedimentary), from the Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old.
The section below crosses 7 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 61×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Conglomerate, sandstone, mudstone. Age: Triassic, 202 to 252 million years old. About 10 mi of the line.
Gneiss, biotite-schist. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Gneiss, mica-schist. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Metasedimentary. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Biotite-gneiss, mica-schist, amphibolite. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Gneiss. 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. 1 smaller unit 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 Cary reaches Pamlico Sound and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Crabtree Creek and the Neuse: about 240 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Cary; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Cary has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 91° in July; winter nights fall to about 32° in January. A normal year brings about 5 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 46 inches of water.
On November 14 Cary normally reaches 63° and falls to 40°. The record high is 81°, in 1999; the record low 20°, in 1977. The most rain on this date, 1.57 in, fell in 1940.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1887 from the Raleigh Area threaded record (Raleigh-Durham International Airport, 7 miles north, 100 ft lower). NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
