The York 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.
16° on Nov. 16, 1996, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1988. Next is 17° in 2017.
York’s center stands about 730 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 480 ft to 920 ft, a difference of 440 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is High Rock, about 1,210 ft, 15 miles west-southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Antietam and Harpers Formations, undivided (quartzite), from the Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old.
The section below crosses 9 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 25×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Schist, phyllite. Age: Paleozoic, 252 to 542 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Quartzite. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Phyllite, mica-schist. Age: Paleozoic, 252 to 542 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Quartzite, schist. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Limestone. Age: Cambrian to Ordovician, 445 to 542 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Dolostone. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 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. 3 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 York reaches Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Mill Creek, Codorus Creek and the Susquehanna: about 65 river miles.
Lake on the way: Lake Aldred.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of York; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
York has a hot-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 85° in July; winter nights fall to about 24° in January. A normal year brings about 34 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 48 inches of water.
On November 14 York normally reaches 54° and falls to 36°. The record high is 73°, in 1993; the record low 22°, in 2019. The most rain on this date, 1.59 in, fell in 1995.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1988 at Millers 4 NE, 15 miles south-southwest, 130 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.