The Glen Alpine 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.
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny; warmer
Sunny; warmer
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Mostly sunny
5.63 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1880. The next wettest, 3.58 inches, fell in 2022.
Glen Alpine’s center stands about 1,230 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,030 ft to 1,330 ft, a difference of 300 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Laurel Knob, about 4,080 ft, 15 miles north-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Amphibolite and Biotite Gneiss (amphibolite, biotite-gneiss), from the Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old.
The section below crosses 13 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 9×. 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 7 mi of the line.
Biotite-gneiss. Age: Cambrian to Ordovician, 445 to 542 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Amphibolite, biotite-gneiss. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Quartzite. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Mica-schist. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Gneiss. Age: Mesoproterozoic to Neoproterozoic, 950 to 1,250 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. 7 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 Glen Alpine reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of the Catawba, the Wateree, the Congaree, the Santee and the South Santee: about 400 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Lib Pines Lake and Lake Norman.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Glen Alpine; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Glen Alpine has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 88° in July; winter nights fall to about 28° in January. About 52 inches of rain fall in a normal year, with about 4 inches of snow.
On November 14 Glen Alpine normally reaches 61° and falls to 35°. The record high is 80°, in 1999; the record low 14°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 1.86 in, fell in 1972.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1880 at Morganton, 6 miles east. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
