The Chapel Hill 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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4.30 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1891. The next wettest, 4.15 inches, fell in 2018.
Chapel Hill’s center stands about 490 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 260 ft to 590 ft, a difference of 330 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Occoneechee Mountain, about 870 ft, 11 miles north-northwest.
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 7 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 32×. 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.
Metadacite, metarhyolite, metavolcanic. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Metagranite. Age: Neoproterozoic to Middle Cambrian, 520 to 650 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Metaandesite. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Metasedimentary. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Phyllite, schist. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 0.3 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 Chapel Hill reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of Bolin Creek, Little Creek, New Hope Creek, the New Hope, the Haw and the Cape Fear: about 220 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Chapel Hill; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Chapel Hill has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 90° in July; winter nights fall to about 29° in January. About 49 inches of rain fall in a normal year, with about 3 inches of snow.
On November 14 Chapel Hill normally reaches 62° and falls to 38°. The record high is 81°, in 1951; the record low 17°, in 1905. The most rain on this date, 1.55 in, fell in 1940.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1891 at Chapel Hill 2 W, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
