The Elk 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.
75° on Nov. 11, 2020, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1934. Next is 69° in 1956.
Elk’s center stands about 2,060 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,320 ft to 2,190 ft, a difference of 870 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Parker Hill, about 2,400 ft, 15 miles north-northeast.
The section below crosses 7 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 17×. 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, siltstone, shale. Age: Devonian to Carboniferous, 324 to 422 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Siltstone, conglomerate. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Shale, sandstone. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Siltstone, shale. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone, shale. Age: Devonian to Carboniferous, 324 to 422 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. 1 smaller unit 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 Elk reaches the Gulf of America by way of Hooks Brook, the Allegheny, the Ohio and the Mississippi: about 2,160 river miles.
Lake on the way: Allegheny Reservoir.
970 miles of the trip are on the Ohio.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Elk; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Elk has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 79° in July; winter nights fall to about 13° in January. A normal year brings about 75 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 50 inches of water.
On November 14 Elk normally reaches 47° and falls to 28°. The record high is 67°, in 2010; the record low 3°, in 1996. The most rain on this date, 1.37 in, fell in 1972.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1934 at Bradford 4 SW Res 5, 14 miles east-southeast, 400 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.