The Madison 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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5.32 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1962. The next wettest, 3.08 inches, fell in 2020.
Madison’s center stands about 610 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 560 ft to 920 ft, a difference of 360 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Flat Shoal Mountain, about 1,660 ft, 15 miles west.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Newark Supergroup, Dan River Group; Cow Branch Formation (mudstone), from the Triassic, 202 to 252 million years old.
The section below crosses 9 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 33×. 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 10 mi of the line.
Metagraywacke, muscovite-schist. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Mudstone, sandstone, conglomerate. Age: Triassic, 202 to 252 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Granitic. Age: Late Mississippian to Permian, 265 to 325 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Metagraywacke. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 0.9 mi of the line.
Mudstone. Age: Triassic, 202 to 252 million years old. About 0.6 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 3 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 Madison reaches Albemarle Sound and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Big Beaver Island Creek, the Dan and the Roanoke: about 310 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 Madison; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Madison has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 88° in July; winter nights fall to about 29° in January. A normal year brings about 7 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 48 inches of water.
On November 14 Madison normally reaches 60° and falls to 38°. The record high is 77°, in 1985; the record low 16°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 1.21 in, fell in 1972.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1962 at Reidsville 2 NW, 15 miles east, 280 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
