The Media 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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81° on Nov. 15, 1993, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1871. Next is 76° in 1955.
Media’s center stands about 310 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 90 ft to 410 ft, a difference of 320 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Diamond Rock Hill, about 700 ft, 13 miles north-northwest.
The section below crosses 12 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 41×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Mica-schist. Age: Paleozoic, 252 to 542 million years old. About 10 mi of the line.
Gneiss. Age: Precambrian. About 3 mi of the line.
Sand. Age: Miocene, 5.3 to 23 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sand, gravel. Age: Miocene, 5.3 to 23 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Granite. Age: Paleozoic, 252 to 542 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Gneiss. Age: Precambrian. About 0.8 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 6 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 Media reaches Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Ridley Creek and the Delaware: about 55 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Media; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Media has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 88° in July; winter nights fall to about 26° in January. A normal year brings about 23 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 44 inches of water.
On November 14 Media normally reaches 56° and falls to 39°. The record high is 76°, in 1955; the record low 19°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 2.64 in, fell in 1972.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1871 from the Philadelphia Area threaded record (Philadelphia International Airport, 9 miles east-southeast, 300 ft lower). NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
