The Salem 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.
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny; warmer
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny
5.63 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1880. The next wettest, 3.58 inches, fell in 2022.
Salem’s center stands about 1,230 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,020 ft to 1,900 ft, a difference of 880 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Hickory Knob, about 3,020 ft, 6 miles south-southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Migmatitic Granitic Gneiss (biotite-gneiss), from the Cambrian to Ordovician, 445 to 542 million years old.
The section below crosses 4 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 10×. 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. Age: Cambrian to Ordovician, 445 to 542 million years old. About 11 mi of the line.
Biotite-gneiss, mica-schist, calc-silicate-rock. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 10 mi of the line.
Biotite-gneiss. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Biotite-gneiss. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 0.4 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 Salem reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of the Bailey Fork, the Catawba, the Wateree, the Congaree, the Santee and the South Santee: about 400 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Lib Pines Lake and Lake Norman.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Salem; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Salem has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 88° in July; winter nights fall to about 28° in January. About 52 inches of rain fall in a normal year, with about 4 inches of snow.
On November 14 Salem normally reaches 61° and falls to 35°. The record high is 80°, in 1999; the record low 14°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 1.86 in, fell in 1972.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1880 at Morganton, 3 miles northeast. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
