The Dobson 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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3.50 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1893. The next wettest, 3.14 inches, fell in 2006.
Dobson’s center stands about 1,240 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,020 ft to 1,310 ft, a difference of 290 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Fisher Peak, about 3,540 ft, 13 miles north-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Alligator Back Formation; Gneiss, from the Neoproterozoic, 542 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 21×. 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. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 13 mi of the line.
Metagraywacke, muscovite-schist. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Mica-schist, phyllite. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Metagraywacke. 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 2 mi of the line.
Gneiss. Age: Mesoproterozoic, 1.2 to 1.2 billion years old. About 2 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 Dobson reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of Cody Creek, the Fisher, the Yadkin, the Pee Dee, the Great Pee Dee, Schooner Creek and the Waccamaw: about 360 river miles.
Lake on the way: Lake Tillery.
150 miles of the trip are on the Great Pee Dee.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Dobson; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Dobson has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 86° in July; winter nights fall to about 25° in January. A normal year brings about 8 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 50 inches of water.
On November 14 Dobson normally reaches 60° and falls to 33°. The record high is 77°, in 2003; the record low 11°, in 1920. The most rain on this date, 2.05 in, fell in 1972.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1893 at Mount Airy 2 W, 8 miles north-northeast, 160 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
