The Middlebranch 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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3.01 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1887. The next wettest, 2.14 inches, fell in 2011.
Middlebranch’s center stands about 1,120 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,060 ft to 1,250 ft, a difference of 190 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Sponsellers Hill, about 1,280 ft, 10 miles south.
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 2 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 62×. 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. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 23 mi of the line.
Shale, siltstone, sandstone. Age: Devonian to Carboniferous, 324 to 422 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.
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 Middlebranch reaches the Gulf of America by way of Middle Branch Nimishillen Creek, Nimishillen Creek, Sandy Creek, the Tuscarawas, the Muskingum, the Ohio and the Mississippi: about 1,990 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 Middlebranch; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Middlebranch has a hot-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 84° in July; winter nights fall to about 20° in January. A normal year brings about 47 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 42 inches of water.
On November 14 Middlebranch normally reaches 51° and falls to 35°. The record high is 73°, in 1909; the record low 11°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 2.13 in, fell in 2011.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1887 from the Akron Area threaded record (Akron Canton Airport, 6 miles west-northwest). NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
