The Sterling 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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0° on Nov. 17, 1933, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1901. Next is 2° in 1908.
Sterling’s center stands about 1,620 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,230 ft to 2,050 ft, a difference of 820 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Big Pine Hill, about 2,260 ft, 15 miles west-southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Poplar Gap and Packerton Members of Catskill Formation, undivided (conglomerate-sandstone, sandstone), from the Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old.
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 19×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Conglomerate-sandstone, sandstone. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old. About 15 mi of the line.
Conglomerate-sandstone, clastic. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone, mudstone. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old. About 0.3 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 Sterling reaches Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Butternut Creek, Wallenpaupack Creek, the Lackawaxen and the Delaware: about 280 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Sterling; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Sterling has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 78° in July; winter nights fall to about 15° in January. About 50 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Sterling normally reaches 46° and falls to 30°. The record high is 65°, in 1955; the record low 5°, in 1905. The most rain on this date, 1.85 in, fell in 1949.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1901 from the Mount Pocono Area threaded record (Pocono Mountains Municipal Airport, 14 miles south, 260 ft higher). NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
