The Lowell 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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3.64 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1890. The next wettest, 3.10 inches, fell in 1940.
Lowell’s center stands about 790 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 590 ft to 890 ft, a difference of 300 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Crowders Mountain, about 1,570 ft, 10 miles west-southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Felsic Metavolcanic Rock (metarhyolite, metadacite), 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 43×. 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.
Granite. Age: Early Pennsylvanian to Permian, 270 to 320 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Metarhyolite, metadacite. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Mica-schist. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 5 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 Lowell reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of the South Fork Catawba, the Catawba, the Wateree, the Congaree, the Santee and the South Santee: about 300 river miles.
Lake on the way: Lib Pines Lake.
90 miles of the trip are on the Wateree.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Lowell; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Lowell has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 91° in July; winter nights fall to about 31° in January. About 44 inches of rain fall in a normal year, with about 1 inch of snow.
On November 14 Lowell normally reaches 64° and falls to 40°. The record high is 80°, in 1999; the record low 21°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 1.23 in, fell in 1940.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1890 at Gastonia, 2 miles west. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
