The Wilkesboro 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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4.41 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1921. The next wettest, 2.50 inches, fell in 2009.
Wilkesboro’s center stands about 1,050 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 960 ft to 1,290 ft, a difference of 330 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Pores Knob, about 2,680 ft, 7 miles south.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Fine-grained Biotite Gneiss (biotite-gneiss), from the Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old.
The section below crosses 10 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 14×. 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, mica-schist, calc-silicate-rock. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Gneiss. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Mica-schist, phyllite. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Metagranite. Age: Early Cambrian to Late Ordovician, 455 to 540 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Biotite-gneiss. Age: Cambrian to Ordovician, 445 to 542 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Mica-schist. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 4 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 Wilkesboro reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of Moravian Creek, the Yadkin, the Pee Dee, the Great Pee Dee, Schooner Creek and the Waccamaw: about 390 river miles.
Lake on the way: Lake Tillery.
160 miles of the trip are on the Yadkin.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Wilkesboro; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Wilkesboro has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 87° in July; winter nights fall to about 27° in January. A normal year brings about 6 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 52 inches of water.
On November 14 Wilkesboro normally reaches 60° and falls to 35°. The record high is 79°, in 1993; the record low 12°, in 1976. The most rain on this date, 1.79 in, fell in 1972.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1921 at North Wilkesboro, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
