The Ephrata 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.
Partly cloudy
Partly cloudy; warmer
Partly cloudy
Sunny
Sunny
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny
16° on Nov. 11, 2017, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1992. Next is 19° in 1996.
Ephrata’s center stands about 350 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 320 ft to 800 ft, a difference of 480 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Eagle Peak, about 1,320 ft, 12 miles north-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Ontelaunee 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 19×. 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: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Triassic, 202 to 252 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Limestone. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Limestone, dolostone. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Dolostone. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Arkose. Age: Triassic, 202 to 252 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 Ephrata reaches Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Gensemer Run, the Conestoga and the Susquehanna: about 75 river miles.
Lake on the way: Lake Aldred.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Ephrata; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Ephrata has a hot-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 86° in July; winter nights fall to about 24° in January. A normal year brings about 34 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 47 inches of water.
On November 14 Ephrata normally reaches 54° and falls to 37°. The record high is 70°, in 1993; the record low 25°, in 2004. The most rain on this date, 0.50 in, fell in 2008.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1992 at New Holland 2 SE, 7 miles south-southeast, 260 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
