The Germanton 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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5.37 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1899. The next wettest, 3.46 inches, fell in 2009.
Germanton’s center stands about 680 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 650 ft to 970 ft, a difference of 320 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Moores Knob, about 2,540 ft, 10 miles north-northwest.
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 11×. 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, mica-schist, calc-silicate-rock. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Metagraywacke, muscovite-schist. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Gneiss, amphibole-schist. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Gneiss. Age: Mesoproterozoic, 1.2 to 1.2 billion years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Metagraywacke. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
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 Germanton reaches Albemarle Sound and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Buffalo Creek, Town Fork Creek, the Dan and the Roanoke: about 330 river miles.
Lake on the way: Roanoke Rapids Lake.
130 miles of the trip are on the Roanoke.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Germanton; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Germanton has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 88° in July; winter nights fall to about 31° in January. About 43 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Germanton normally reaches 60° and falls to 39°. The record high is 81°, in 1931; the record low 19°, in 1906. The most rain on this date, 1.42 in, fell in 1940.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1899 at Winston Salem Reynolds Airport, 9 miles south, 280 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
