The Empire 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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7° on Nov. 16, 1933, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1892. Next is 9° in 1986.
Empire’s center stands about 680 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 650 ft to 1,270 ft, a difference of 620 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Round Knob, about 1,440 ft, 11 miles north-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Allegheny and Pottsville Groups, Undivided (shale, siltstone), from the Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old.
The section below crosses 9 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 26×. 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, siltstone, mudstone. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 10 mi of the line.
Shale, siltstone, sandstone. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone, shale. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Shale, siltstone, mudstone. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Shale, siltstone. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 0.5 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 3 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 Empire reaches the Gulf of America by way of Jeremy Run, the Ohio and the Mississippi: about 1,890 river miles.
970 miles of the trip are on the Mississippi.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Empire; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Empire has a hot-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 84° in July; winter nights fall to about 21° in January. About 42 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Empire normally reaches 52° and falls to 35°. The record high is 75°, in 1951; the record low 9°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 0.73 in, fell in 1961.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1892 at New Cumberland L/D, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
