The Union 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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68° on Nov. 13, 1989, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1962. Next is 68° in 1994.
Union’s center stands about 2,030 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,580 ft to 2,380 ft, a difference of 800 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Boone Mountain, about 2,410 ft, 12 miles north.
The section below crosses 5 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. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 10 mi of the line.
Sandstone, conglomerate. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone. Age: Devonian to Carboniferous, 324 to 422 million years old. About 0.6 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 Union reaches Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Burns Run, Anderson Creek, the West Branch Susquehanna and the Susquehanna: about 330 river miles.
Lake on the way: Lake Aldred.
180 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 Union; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Union has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 79° in July; winter nights fall to about 17° in January. About 42 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Union normally reaches 48° and falls to 32°. The record high is 68°, in 1994; the record low 8°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 1.05 in, fell in 2011.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1962 at Dubois Regional Airport, 16 miles west-northwest, 220 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
