The East Berlin 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.
14° on Nov. 14, 1986, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1972. Next is 15° in 1996.
East Berlin’s center stands about 430 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 390 ft to 570 ft, a difference of 180 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Long Mountain, about 1,570 ft, 13 miles northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows New Oxford Formation (arkose), from the Triassic, 202 to 252 million years old.
The section below crosses 10 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 28×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Siltstone-mudstone, shale. Age: Triassic, 202 to 252 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Arkose. Age: Triassic, 202 to 252 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Quartzite. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Basalt. Age: Jurassic, 145 to 202 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Quartzite, schist. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Age: Precambrian. 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. 4 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 East Berlin reaches Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Conewago Creek and the Susquehanna: about 95 river miles.
Lake on the way: Lake Aldred.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of East Berlin; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
East Berlin has a hot-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 86° in July; winter nights fall to about 22° in January. A normal year brings about 27 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 45 inches of water.
On November 14 East Berlin normally reaches 54° and falls to 35°. The record high is 66°, in 1973; the record low 14°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 1.28 in, fell in 1972.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1972 at Biglerville, 15 miles west, 290 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.