The Otego 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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73° on Nov. 11, 2020, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1906. Next is 72° in 1909.
Otego’s center stands about 1,780 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,180 ft to 1,970 ft, a difference of 790 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Mount Meredith, about 2,390 ft, 14 miles east-southeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Oneonta Formation (shale), from the Middle Devonian to Late Devonian, 359 to 394 million years old.
The section below crosses 4 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 18×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Shale. Age: Middle Devonian to Late Devonian, 359 to 394 million years old. About 10 mi of the line.
Shale, siltstone, sandstone. Age: Middle Devonian, 384 to 394 million years old. About 10 mi of the line.
Sandstone, conglomerate, shale. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Shale, siltstone, sandstone. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 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 Otego reaches Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean by way of West Branch Otsdawa Creek, Otsdawa Creek and the Susquehanna: about 430 river miles.
Lake on the way: Lake Aldred.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Otego; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Otego has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 81° in July; winter nights fall to about 12° in January. A normal year brings about 75 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 45 inches of water.
On November 14 Otego normally reaches 48° and falls to 28°. The record high is 68°, in 1989; the record low 11°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 1.52 in, fell in 1972.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1906 at Norwich, 17 miles west-northwest, 790 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
