The Plains 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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3.00 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1901. The next wettest, 2.41 inches, fell in 1926.
Plains’s center stands about 660 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 520 ft to 1,250 ft, a difference of 730 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Bald Mountain, about 2,270 ft, 12 miles north-northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Llewellyn Formation (sandstone), from the Carboniferous, 299 to 324 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 12×. 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: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Devonian to Carboniferous, 324 to 422 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Shale, siltstone, sandstone. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 1.0 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 Plains reaches Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean by way of the Susquehanna: about 200 river miles.
Lake on the way: Lake Aldred.
150 miles of the trip are on the Susquehanna.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Plains; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Plains has a hot-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 85° in July; winter nights fall to about 20° in January. A normal year brings about 45 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 39 inches of water.
On November 14 Plains normally reaches 52° and falls to 35°. The record high is 71°, in 1989; the record low 14°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 1.75 in, fell in 1972.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1901 from the Avoca Area threaded record (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport, 8 miles east-northeast, 290 ft higher). NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
