The Hopewell 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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16° on Nov. 16, 1996, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1988. Next is 17° in 2017.
Hopewell’s center stands about 730 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 550 ft to 920 ft, a difference of 370 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Huntrick Hill, about 1,070 ft, 13 miles west-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Octoraro Formation (schist, phyllite), from the Paleozoic, 252 to 542 million years old.
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 25×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Schist, phyllite. Age: Paleozoic, 252 to 542 million years old. About 11 mi of the line.
Muscovite-schist. Age: Proterozoic, 542 to 2,500 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Phyllite, mica-schist. Age: Paleozoic, 252 to 542 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Muscovite-gneiss. Age: Proterozoic, 542 to 2,500 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Biotite-schist. Age: Proterozoic, 542 to 2,500 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Metagraywacke, muscovite-schist. Age: Proterozoic, 542 to 2,500 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. 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 Hopewell reaches Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Leibs Creek, South Branch Muddy Creek, Muddy Creek and the Susquehanna: about 50 river miles.
Lake on the way: Lake Aldred.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Hopewell; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Hopewell has a hot-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 85° 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 48 inches of water.
On November 14 Hopewell normally reaches 54° and falls to 36°. The record high is 73°, in 1993; the record low 22°, in 2019. The most rain on this date, 1.59 in, fell in 1995.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1988 at Millers 4 NE, 13 miles west, 130 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
