The Light Oak 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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5.77 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1893. The next wettest, 3.56 inches, fell in 2009.
Light Oak’s center stands about 860 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 680 ft to 950 ft, a difference of 270 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Crowders Mountain, about 1,570 ft, 12 miles east-southeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Biotite Gneiss and Schist (biotite-gneiss, mica-schist, calc-silicate-rock), from the Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old.
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 49×. 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 14 mi of the line.
Granite. Age: Early Mississippian, 351 to 352 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Mica-schist. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 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.
Granite. Age: Carboniferous to Permian, 252 to 359 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Metagranite. Age: Early Cambrian to Late Ordovician, 455 to 540 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 Light Oak reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of Buffalo Creek, the Broad, the Congaree, the Santee and the South Santee: about 300 river miles.
Lake on the way: Lib Pines Lake.
100 miles of the trip are on the Broad.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Light Oak; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Light Oak has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 91° in July; winter nights fall to about 27° in January. About 50 inches of rain fall in a normal year, with about 4 inches of snow.
On November 14 Light Oak normally reaches 64° and falls to 35°. The record high is 81°, in 1955; the record low 18°, in 2019. The most rain on this date, 1.88 in, fell in 1972.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1893 at Shelby 2 NW, 6 miles west-northwest. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
