The Middlesex 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
Sunny
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny
7.27 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1916. The next wettest, 3.42 inches, fell in 2009.
Middlesex’s center stands about 270 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 190 ft to 340 ft, a difference of 150 ft: gently rolling country.
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 5 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 64×. 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 6 mi of the line.
Slate, argillite. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Granitic. Age: Early Pennsylvanian to Permian, 270 to 320 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Gravel, sand. Age: Tertiary, 2.6 to 66 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Biotite-gneiss, mica-schist, amphibolite. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 2 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 Middlesex reaches Pamlico Sound and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Turkey Creek, Contentnea Creek and the Neuse: about 180 river miles.
95 miles of the trip are on Contentnea Creek.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Middlesex; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Middlesex has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 90° in July; winter nights fall to about 33° in January. About 50 inches of rain fall in a normal year, with about 2 inches of snow.
On November 14 Middlesex normally reaches 64° and falls to 41°. The record high is 83°, in 1951; the record low 21°, in 1976. The most rain on this date, 0.90 in, fell in 2024.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1916 at Wilson 3 SW, 16 miles east-southeast, 160 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
