The Portage 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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75° on Nov. 11, 2020, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1948. Next is 68° in 2012.
Portage’s center stands about 2,210 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,330 ft to 2,360 ft, a difference of 1,030 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Kaple Hill, about 2,520 ft, 13 miles northeast.
The section below crosses 4 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 14×. 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. Age: Devonian to Carboniferous, 324 to 422 million years old. About 16 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone, shale. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone, shale. Age: Devonian to Carboniferous, 324 to 422 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sandstone, conglomerate. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 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.
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 Portage reaches Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean by way of East Branch Cowley Run, Sinnemahoning Portage Creek, Driftwood Branch Sinnemahoning Creek, Bennett Branch Sinnemahoning Creek, Sinnemahoning Creek, the West Branch Susquehanna and the Susquehanna: about 290 river miles.
Lake on the way: Lake Aldred.
110 miles of the trip are on the West Branch Susquehanna.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Portage; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Portage has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 80° in July; winter nights fall to about 14° in January. A normal year brings about 55 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 43 inches of water.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1948 at Port Allegany, 17 miles north-northwest, 740 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
