The Bastress 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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77° on Nov. 16, 1928, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1895. Next is 72° in 1902.
Bastress’s center stands about 1,200 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 510 ft to 1,790 ft, a difference of 1,280 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Jones Mountain, about 2,180 ft, 14 miles south.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Reedsville Formation (shale), from the Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old.
The section below crosses 11 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 12×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Sandstone, siltstone, mudstone. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Sandstone, shale. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone, shale. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Limestone, dolostone. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 5 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 Bastress reaches Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Bender Run, the West Branch Susquehanna and the Susquehanna: about 180 river miles.
Lake on the way: Lake Aldred.
85 miles of the trip are on the Susquehanna.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Bastress; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Bastress has a hot-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 85° in July; winter nights fall to about 20° in January. A normal year brings about 36 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 44 inches of water.
On November 14 Bastress normally reaches 51° and falls to 34°. The record high is 69°, in 1989; the record low 13°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 1.53 in, fell in 1972.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1895 from the Williamsport Area threaded record (Williamsport Regional Airport, 12 miles east-northeast, 680 ft lower). NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
