The Polkton 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
Sunny
Sunny
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny
3.79 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1896. The next wettest, 3.33 inches, fell in 2009.
Polkton’s center stands about 280 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 250 ft to 450 ft, a difference of 200 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Polk Mountain, about 660 ft, 13 miles west-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Newark Supergroup, Chatham Group; Chatham Group, Undivided (conglomerate, sandstone, mudstone), from the Triassic, 202 to 252 million years old.
The section below crosses 3 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 57×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Conglomerate, sandstone, mudstone. Age: Triassic, 202 to 252 million years old. About 13 mi of the line.
Slate, argillite. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Slate, argillite. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 4 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 Polkton reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of Brown Creek, the Pee Dee, the Great Pee Dee, Schooner Creek and the Waccamaw: about 230 river miles.
150 miles of the trip are on the Great Pee Dee.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Polkton; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Polkton has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 91° in July; winter nights fall to about 30° in January. About 48 inches of rain fall in a normal year, with about 2 inches of snow.
On November 14 Polkton normally reaches 64° and falls to 38°. The record high is 83°, in 1951; the record low 15°, in 1920. The most rain on this date, 1.68 in, fell in 1997.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1896 at Monroe 2 SE, 19 miles west, 260 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
