The Lawrence 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.
79° on Nov. 15, 1993, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1865. Next is 77° in 1973.
Lawrence’s center stands about 70 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 50 ft to 150 ft, a difference of 100 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Sourland Mountain, about 640 ft, 14 miles north.
The section below crosses 12 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 34×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Siltstone. Age: Late Triassic to Early Jurassic, 175 to 237 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Arkose. Age: Late Triassic, 202 to 237 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Siltstone-mudstone, sandstone-mudstone. Age: Late Triassic, 202 to 237 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Sand. Age: Late Cretaceous, 72 to 84 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Sand, clay. Age: Late Cretaceous, 72 to 84 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sand, clay. Age: Late Cretaceous, 94 to 100 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. 6 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 Lawrence reaches Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Shipetaukin Creek, Assunpink Creek and the Delaware: about 110 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Lawrence; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Lawrence has a hot-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 86° in July; winter nights fall to about 24° in January. A normal year brings about 27 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 46 inches of water.
On November 14 Lawrence normally reaches 55° and falls to 37°. The record high is 72°, in 1993; the record low 16°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 1.89 in, fell in 1972.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1865 from the Trenton Area threaded record (Trenton-Mercer Airport, 7 miles west, 120 ft higher). NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.