The Columbus 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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Mostly sunny
4.76 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1917. The next wettest, 4.34 inches, fell in 2020.
Columbus’s center stands about 1,110 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 900 ft to 2,890 ft, a difference of 1,990 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Sugarloaf Mountain, about 3,950 ft, 11 miles north-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Migmatitic Granitic Gneiss (biotite-gneiss), from the Cambrian to Ordovician, 445 to 542 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 7×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Biotite-gneiss. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Biotite-gneiss, mica-schist, calc-silicate-rock. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Biotite-gneiss. Age: Cambrian to Ordovician, 445 to 542 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Biotite-gneiss. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 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.
Mica-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. 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 Columbus reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of Horse Creek, the North Pacolet, the Pacolet, the Broad, the Congaree, the Santee and the South Santee: about 330 river miles.
Lake on the way: Lib Pines Lake.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Columbus; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Columbus has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 86° in July; winter nights fall to about 32° in January. About 64 inches of rain fall in a normal year, with about 5 inches of snow.
On November 14 Columbus normally reaches 61° and falls to 41°. The record high is 83°, in 1999; the record low 19°, in 2019. The most rain on this date, 1.81 in, fell in 1972.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1917 at Tryon, 5 miles southwest, 210 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
