The West Canton 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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3.26 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1894. The next wettest, 2.44 inches, fell in 1935.
West Canton’s center stands about 2,710 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 2,530 ft to 3,920 ft, a difference of 1,390 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Richland Balsam, about 6,380 ft, 14 miles south-southwest.
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 5 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 6×. 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, mica-schist. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 9 mi of the line.
Gneiss. Age: Mesoproterozoic, 1 to 1.6 billion years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Biotite-gneiss, amphibolite. Age: Mesoproterozoic to Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,600 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Metagraywacke, metasiltstone. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Metadunite. Age: Neoproterozoic to Paleozoic, 252 to 1,000 million years old. About 0.3 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 West Canton reaches the Gulf of America by way of Patton Branch, the Pigeon, the French Broad, the Tennessee, the Ohio and the Mississippi: about 1,790 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 West Canton; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
West Canton has a oceanic climate. Summer afternoons average 82° in July; winter nights fall to about 23° in January. A normal year brings about 11 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 50 inches of water.
On November 14 West Canton normally reaches 58° and falls to 31°. The record high is 75°, in 1994; the record low 11°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 1.09 in, fell in 1972.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1894 at Waynesville 1 E, 7 miles west-southwest. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
