The Cumberland Valley 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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79° on Nov. 15, 2011, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1974. Next is 78° in 2020.
Cumberland Valley’s center stands about 1,520 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,040 ft to 2,620 ft, a difference of 1,580 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Martin Hill, about 2,790 ft, 5 miles east-northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Onondaga and Old Port Formations, undivided, from the Early Devonian to Middle Devonian, 384 to 422 million years old.
The section below crosses 15 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 10×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Quartzite. Age: Silurian, 422 to 445 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Shale, siltstone. Age: Devonian to Late Devonian, 374 to 422 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Siltstone. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Limestone. Age: Silurian to Devonian, 359 to 445 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Age: Early Devonian to Middle Devonian, 384 to 422 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 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. 9 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 Cumberland Valley reaches Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Evitts Creek, the North Branch Potomac and the Potomac: about 330 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Cumberland Valley; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Cumberland Valley has a hot-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 87° in July; winter nights fall to about 23° in January. A normal year brings about 29 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 39 inches of water.
On November 14 Cumberland Valley normally reaches 54° and falls to 34°. The record high is 71°, in 1993; the record low 13°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 0.72 in, fell in 1997.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1974 at Cumberland 2, 13 miles south-southwest, 790 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
