The Henderson 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
Partly cloudy
Partly cloudy
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny
4.37 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1893. The next wettest, 4.02 inches, fell in 2018.
Henderson’s center stands about 510 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 370 ft to 530 ft, a difference of 160 ft: gently rolling country.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Foliated to Massive Granitic Rock, from the Early Pennsylvanian to Permian, 270 to 320 million years old.
The section below crosses 3 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 56×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Granitic. Age: Early Pennsylvanian to Permian, 270 to 320 million years old. About 15 mi of the line.
Metagranite. Age: Neoproterozoic to Middle Cambrian, 520 to 650 million years old. About 9 mi of the line.
Phyllite, schist. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 0.7 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale.
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 Henderson reaches Albemarle Sound and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Nutbush Creek and the Roanoke: about 190 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 Henderson; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Henderson has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 90° in July; winter nights fall to about 26° in January. About 49 inches of rain fall in a normal year, with about 2 inches of snow.
On November 14 Henderson normally reaches 63° and falls to 35°. The record high is 81°, in 1951; the record low 18°, in 1976. The most rain on this date, 1.50 in, fell in 1940.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1893 at Henderson 2 NNW, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
