The Sproul 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.
Mostly cloudy
Mostly cloudy
Partly cloudy
Sunny
Sunny
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny
11° on Nov. 14, 1986, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1948. Next is 12° in 1959.
Sproul’s center stands about 1,240 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,140 ft to 2,140 ft, a difference of 1,000 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Blue Knob, about 3,140 ft, 6 miles west-northwest.
The section below crosses 21 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 10×. 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 5 mi of the line.
Dolostone. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sandstone, shale. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Dolostone, limestone. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 15 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 Sproul reaches Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Beaverdam Creek, the Frankstown Branch Juniata, the Juniata and the Susquehanna: about 240 river miles.
Lake on the way: Lake Aldred.
100 miles of the trip are on the Juniata.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Sproul; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Sproul has a hot-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 83° in July; winter nights fall to about 21° in January. About 37 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Sproul normally reaches 51° and falls to 34°. The record high is 73°, in 1993; the record low 11°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 2.25 in, fell in 1972.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1948 at Altoona Blair County Airport, 8 miles east-northeast, 220 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
