The La Croft 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.
7° on Nov. 16, 1933, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1892. Next is 9° in 1986.
La Croft’s center stands about 1,190 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 660 ft to 1,260 ft, a difference of 600 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Round Knob, about 1,440 ft, 4 miles west-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Conemaugh Group (shale, siltstone, mudstone), from the Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old.
The section below crosses 8 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 28×. 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 11 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Shale, siltstone. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Shale, clastic. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Shale, siltstone, sandstone. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 0.6 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 2 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 La Croft reaches the Gulf of America by way of Jethroe Run, the Ohio and the Mississippi: about 1,900 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 La Croft; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
La Croft 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 La Croft 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, 8 miles south, 520 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.