The Sanford 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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4.69 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1972. The next wettest, 4.30 inches, fell in 2018.
Sanford’s center stands about 360 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 280 ft to 500 ft, a difference of 220 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Cameron Hill, about 510 ft, 15 miles south-southeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Newark Supergroup, Chatham Group; Sanford Formation (mudstone, sandstone, conglomerate), 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 54×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Mudstone, sandstone, conglomerate. Age: Triassic, 202 to 252 million years old. About 12 mi of the line.
Sandstone, mudstone. Age: Triassic, 202 to 252 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Sand. Age: Cretaceous, 66 to 145 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 Sanford reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of Little Buffalo Creek, the Deep River and the Cape Fear: about 210 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Sanford; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Sanford has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 90° in July; winter nights fall to about 30° in January. About 47 inches of rain fall in a normal year, with about 2 inches of snow.
On November 14 Sanford normally reaches 64° and falls to 38°. The record high is 80°, in 1999; the record low 19°, in 1977. The most rain on this date, 1.16 in, fell in 2024.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1972 at Sanford 8 NE, 8 miles east-northeast. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
