The Bellefonte 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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9° on Nov. 16, 1933, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1882. Next is 12° in 1883.
Bellefonte’s center stands about 800 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 680 ft to 1,690 ft, a difference of 1,010 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Thickhead Mountain, about 2,420 ft, 12 miles south-southeast.
The section below crosses 20 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.
Dolostone. 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, shale. 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.
Sandstone, siltstone, mudstone. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Shale, limestone, sandstone. Age: Silurian to Devonian, 359 to 445 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. 14 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 Bellefonte reaches Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Spring Creek, Bald Eagle Creek, the West Branch Susquehanna and the Susquehanna: about 230 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 Bellefonte; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Bellefonte has a hot-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 81° in July; winter nights fall to about 21° in January. A normal year brings about 44 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 42 inches of water.
On November 14 Bellefonte normally reaches 49° and falls to 34°. The record high is 70°, in 1902; the record low 13°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 0.66 in, fell in 1972.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1882 at State College, 10 miles south-southwest, 370 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
