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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80° on Nov. 16, 2001, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1945. Next is 77° in 1973.
Union’s center stands about 1,070 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 860 ft to 1,790 ft, a difference of 930 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Martin Hill, about 2,790 ft, 15 miles west-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Foreknobs Formation (sandstone), from the Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old.
The section below crosses 6 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 11×. 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 8 mi of the line.
Shale, siltstone. Age: Devonian to Late Devonian, 374 to 422 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Siltstone, sandstone. Age: Devonian, 359 to 422 million years old. About 0.9 mi of the line.
Sandstone, shale. Age: Devonian to Carboniferous, 324 to 422 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 Union reaches Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Bear Creek, Sideling Hill Creek and the Potomac: about 280 river miles.
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 hot-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 85° in July; winter nights fall to about 21° in January. About 43 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Union normally reaches 55° and falls to 33°. The record high is 70°, in 1994; the record low 13°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 1.05 in, fell in 1972.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1945 at Cacapon St Prk # 2, 18 miles south, 110 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
