The Smithfield 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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76° on Nov. 11, 2020, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1893. Next is 74° in 1902.
Smithfield’s center stands about 1,410 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,040 ft to 1,590 ft, a difference of 550 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Armenia Mountain, about 2,460 ft, 14 miles west-southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Lock Haven Formation (sandstone, siltstone, mudstone), from the Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old.
The section below crosses 3 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 15×. 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, mudstone. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old. About 17 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone, shale. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone, shale. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old. About 0.4 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 Smithfield reaches Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Peas Creek, Tomjack Creek, Sugar Creek and the Susquehanna: about 300 river miles.
Lake on the way: Lake Aldred.
240 miles of the trip are on the Susquehanna.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Smithfield; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Smithfield has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 84° in July; winter nights fall to about 16° in January. About 37 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Smithfield normally reaches 50° and falls to 30°. The record high is 74°, in 1902; the record low 7°, in 1905. The most rain on this date, 0.94 in, fell in 1997.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1893 at Waverly, 11 miles north-northeast, 610 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
