The Denver 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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5.00 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1878. The next wettest, 3.01 inches, fell in 1940.
Denver’s center stands about 910 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 750 ft to 940 ft, a difference of 190 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Anderson Mountain, about 1,570 ft, 4 miles northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Granitic Rock, from the Ordovician to Devonian, 359 to 487 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 33×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Metadiorite. Age: Neoproterozoic to Paleozoic, 252 to 1,000 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Granitic. Age: Ordovician to Devonian, 359 to 487 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.
Granite. Age: Early Pennsylvanian to Permian, 270 to 320 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.
Amphibolite, biotite-gneiss. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 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. 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 Denver reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of Mundy Creek, the Catawba, the Wateree, the Congaree, the Santee and the South Santee: about 330 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Lib Pines Lake and Lake Norman.
95 miles of the trip are on the Catawba.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Denver; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Denver has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 90° in July; winter nights fall to about 32° in January. About 44 inches of rain fall in a normal year, with about 4 inches of snow.
On November 14 Denver normally reaches 63° and falls to 40°. The record high is 80°, in 1879; the record low 21°, in 2013. The most rain on this date, 1.23 in, fell in 1972.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1878 from the Charlotte Area threaded record (Charlotte Douglas Airport, 22 miles south-southeast, 180 ft lower). NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
