The Bell 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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68° on Nov. 13, 1989, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1962. Next is 68° in 1994.
Bell’s center stands about 1,770 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,270 ft to 2,250 ft, a difference of 980 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Kinter Hill, about 2,110 ft, 15 miles southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Allegheny Formation (sandstone), from the Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old.
The section below crosses 3 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 19×. 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. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 13 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 11 mi of the line.
Shale, clastic. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 0.7 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.
Bell straddles the Eastern Continental Divide. Rain on the northwest side runs to the Gulf of America; most of the rest goes to Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.
From the center of town, a raindrop reaches Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Laurel Run, the West Branch Susquehanna and the Susquehanna: about 340 river miles. One that lands on the northwest side reaches the Gulf of America by way of Laurel Run, Mahoning Creek, the Allegheny, the Ohio and the Mississippi: about 2,070 river miles.
Lake on the way: Lake Aldred.
210 miles of the trip are on the West Branch Susquehanna.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Bell; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Bell has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 79° in July; winter nights fall to about 17° in January. About 42 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Bell normally reaches 48° and falls to 32°. The record high is 68°, in 1994; the record low 8°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 1.05 in, fell in 2011.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1962 at Dubois Regional Airport, 19 miles north-northwest. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
