The Liberty 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.
3.63 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1926. The next wettest, 3.15 inches, fell in 2018.
Liberty’s center stands about 780 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 620 ft to 810 ft, a difference of 190 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Cane Creek Mountains, about 1,020 ft, 10 miles northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Felsic Metavolcanic Rock (metadacite, metarhyolite, metavolcanic), from the Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old.
The section below crosses 4 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 54×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Metadacite, metarhyolite, metavolcanic. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 12 mi of the line.
Metagranite. Age: Neoproterozoic to Middle Cambrian, 520 to 650 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Metadacite, metarhyolite, metavolcanic. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Metaandesite. 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.
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 Liberty reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of the North Rocky River Prong, the Rocky, the Deep River and the Cape Fear: about 240 river miles.
190 miles of the trip are on the Cape Fear.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Liberty; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Liberty has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 88° in July; winter nights fall to about 29° in January. About 47 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Liberty normally reaches 61° and falls to 38°. The record high is 79°, in 1951; the record low 20°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 0.95 in, fell in 2024.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1926 at Asheboro 2 W, 18 miles southwest. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.