The College 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.
College’s center stands about 1,060 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 950 ft to 2,000 ft, a difference of 1,050 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Thickhead Mountain, about 2,420 ft, 8 miles southeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Bellefonte Formation (dolostone), from the Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old.
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.
Sandstone, shale. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Dolostone. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone, shale. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Quartzite. Age: Silurian, 422 to 445 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 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. 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 College reaches Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Spring Creek, Bald Eagle Creek, the West Branch Susquehanna and the Susquehanna: about 240 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 College; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
College 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 College 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, 3 miles west-southwest, 110 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
