The Palestine 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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0° on Nov. 13, 2019, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1893. Next is 5° in 1959.
Palestine’s center stands about 1,120 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,050 ft to 1,210 ft, a difference of 160 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Hoosier Hill, about 1,320 ft, 7 miles west-southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Lockport Dolomite (dolostone), from the Silurian, 425 to 445 million years old.
The section below crosses 5 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 64×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Dolostone. Age: Silurian, 425 to 445 million years old. About 12 mi of the line.
Limestone. Age: Silurian, 422 to 445 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Shale, dolostone, limestone. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Dolostone, limestone, shale. Age: Silurian, 422 to 445 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Limestone, shale. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 0.4 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 Palestine reaches the Gulf of America by way of Spring Branch, West Branch Greenville Creek, Greenville Creek, the Stillwater, the Great Miami, the Ohio and the Mississippi: about 1,600 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 Palestine; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Palestine has a hot-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 85° in July; winter nights fall to about 19° in January. About 40 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Palestine normally reaches 52° and falls to 33°. The record high is 74°, in 1909; the record low 7°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 2.45 in, fell in 1993.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1893 at Greenville Water Plant, 6 miles northeast. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
