The Rosman 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.
5.12 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1902. The next wettest, 4.60 inches, fell in 1935.
Rosman’s center stands about 2,350 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 2,150 ft to 2,990 ft, a difference of 840 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Black Balsam Knob, about 6,190 ft, 13 miles north-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Henderson Gneiss, from the Early Cambrian, 524 to 525 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 4×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Gneiss. Age: Early Cambrian, 524 to 525 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Biotite-gneiss. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Gneiss, mica-schist. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Granodiorite, quartz-diorite. Age: Middle Devonian, 390 to 391 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Biotite-gneiss. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Metasedimentary. 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. 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 Rosman reaches the Gulf of America by way of Browns Mill Creek, the French Broad, the Tennessee, the Ohio and the Mississippi: about 1,870 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Guntersville Lake, White Lake (historical), Pickwick Lake and Cummings Lake.
970 miles of the trip are on the Mississippi.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Rosman; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Rosman has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 83° in July; winter nights fall to about 25° in January. A normal year brings about 7 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 76 inches of water.
On November 14 Rosman normally reaches 60° and falls to 32°. The record high is 79°, in 1999; the record low 14°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 1.71 in, fell in 1961.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1902 at Brevard, 7 miles northeast, 180 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.