The State College 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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9° on Nov. 16, 1933, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1882. Next is 12° in 1883.
State College’s center stands about 1,150 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 960 ft to 1,350 ft, a difference of 390 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Thickhead Mountain, about 2,420 ft, 9 miles east-southeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Axemann Formation (limestone), from the Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old.
The section below crosses 18 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 13×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Quartzite. Age: Silurian, 422 to 445 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Sandstone, shale. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Dolostone. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Dolostone. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Dolostone. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Shale, limestone, sandstone. Age: Silurian to Devonian, 359 to 445 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. 12 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 State College reaches Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Spring Creek, Bald Eagle Creek, the West Branch Susquehanna and the Susquehanna: about 240 river miles.
Lake on the way: Lake Aldred.
85 miles of the trip are on the Susquehanna.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of State College; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
State College has a hot-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 81° in July; winter nights fall to about 21° in January. A normal year brings about 44 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 42 inches of water.
On November 14 State College normally reaches 49° and falls to 34°. The record high is 70°, in 1902; the record low 13°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 0.66 in, fell in 1972.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1882 at State College, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
