The West Branch 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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72° on Nov. 11, 2020, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1926. Next is 71° in 1931.
West Branch’s center stands about 2,380 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,450 ft to 2,430 ft, a difference of 980 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Bailey Hill, about 2,590 ft, 14 miles north.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Huntley Mountain Formation (sandstone, siltstone), from the Devonian to Carboniferous, 324 to 422 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 16×. 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 14 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone. Age: Devonian to Carboniferous, 324 to 422 million years old. About 9 mi of the line.
Sandstone, conglomerate. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 1.0 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone, mudstone. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old. About 0.7 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 West Branch reaches Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Crippen Run, Pine Creek, the West Branch Susquehanna and the Susquehanna: about 270 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 West Branch; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
West Branch has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 79° in July; winter nights fall to about 14° in January. A normal year brings about 61 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 42 inches of water.
On November 14 West Branch normally reaches 46° and falls to 29°. The record high is 68°, in 1945; the record low 9°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 0.45 in, fell in 1929.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1926 at Wellsboro 4 SW, 17 miles east, 560 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
