The Sylva 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
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10° on Nov. 16, 1933, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1909. Next is 10° in 1940.
Sylva’s center stands about 2,080 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,990 ft to 3,890 ft, a difference of 1,900 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Richland Balsam, about 6,380 ft, 13 miles east.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Coweeta Group; Biotite Gneiss (biotite-gneiss, amphibolite), from the Mesoproterozoic to Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,600 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 5×. 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, amphibolite. Age: Mesoproterozoic to Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,600 million years old. About 16 mi of the line.
Metagraywacke, metasiltstone. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Metadunite. Age: Neoproterozoic to Paleozoic, 252 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.
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 Sylva reaches the Gulf of America by way of Scott Creek, the Tuckasegee, the Tennessee, the Ohio and the Mississippi: about 1,710 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 Sylva; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Sylva has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 85° in July; winter nights fall to about 26° in January. About 54 inches of rain fall in a normal year, with about 4 inches of snow.
On November 14 Sylva normally reaches 60° and falls to 33°. The record high is 78°, in 1931; the record low 16°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 1.00 in, fell in 1921.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1909 at Cullowhee, 5 miles south-southeast, 110 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
