The Harrisburg 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.
Sunny
Mostly sunny; warmer
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny
5.35 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1891. The next wettest, 3.78 inches, fell in 2009.
Harrisburg’s center stands about 650 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 550 ft to 740 ft, a difference of 190 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Capps Hill, about 840 ft, 12 miles west.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Syenite of Concord Plutonic Suite, from the Early Devonian, 404 to 405 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 52×. 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.
Metavolcanic. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Metagabbro, metadiorite. Age: Neoproterozoic to Paleozoic, 252 to 1,000 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Phyllite, schist. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Granite. Age: Early Devonian to Middle Devonian, 385 to 415 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Syenite. Age: Early Devonian, 404 to 405 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. 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 Harrisburg reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of Back Creek, the Rocky, the Pee Dee, the Great Pee Dee, Schooner Creek and the Waccamaw: about 280 river miles.
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 Harrisburg; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Harrisburg has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 92° in July; winter nights fall to about 29° in January. About 48 inches of rain fall in a normal year, with about 3 inches of snow.
On November 14 Harrisburg normally reaches 64° and falls to 37°. The record high is 81°, in 1971; the record low 21°, in 2013. The most rain on this date, 1.36 in, fell in 1940.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1891 at Concord, 8 miles northeast. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
