The Roanoke Rapids 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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6.00 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1972. The next wettest, 4.15 inches, fell in 2009.
Roanoke Rapids’s center stands about 170 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 40 ft to 240 ft, a difference of 200 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Wilkins Hill, about 360 ft, 8 miles west-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Terrace Deposits and Upland Sediment (gravel, sand), from the Tertiary, 2.6 to 66 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 63×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Clay. Age: Tertiary, 2.6 to 66 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Gravel, sand. Age: Tertiary, 2.6 to 66 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Metadiorite. Age: Neoproterozoic to Paleozoic, 252 to 1,000 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Biotite-gneiss. Age: Proterozoic, 542 to 2,500 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Slate, argillite. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Gneiss, biotite-schist. 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. 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 Roanoke Rapids reaches Albemarle Sound and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Chockoyotte Creek and the Roanoke: about 130 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Roanoke Rapids; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Roanoke Rapids has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 90° in July; winter nights fall to about 30° in January. About 50 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Roanoke Rapids normally reaches 62° and falls to 40°. The record high is 77°, in 1989; the record low 19°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 1.06 in, fell in 1997.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1972 at Roanoke Rapids, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
