The Buffalo 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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15° on Nov. 15, 1969, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1949. Next is 19° in 2013.
Buffalo’s center stands about 560 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 430 ft to 680 ft, a difference of 250 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Lucas Hill, about 780 ft, 14 miles west-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Granite - Bald Rock pluton, from the Carboniferous to Permian, 252 to 359 million years old.
The section below crosses 7 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 53×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Granite. Age: Carboniferous to Permian, 252 to 359 million years old. About 10 mi of the line.
Metagranite, metadiorite. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Metadiorite. Age: Neoproterozoic to Ordovician, 445 to 1,000 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Biotite-gneiss. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Granite. Age: Devonian, 359 to 422 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Metavolcanic. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 1 smaller unit 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 Buffalo reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of Buffalo Creek, Fairforest Creek, the Tyger, the Broad, the Congaree, the Santee and the South Santee: about 260 river miles.
Lake on the way: Lib Pines Lake.
70 miles of the trip are on the Santee.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Buffalo; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Buffalo has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 90° in July; winter nights fall to about 29° in January. About 45 inches of rain fall in a normal year, with about 2 inches of snow.
On November 14 Buffalo normally reaches 64° and falls to 37°. The record high is 82°, in 1964; the record low 19°, in 2013. The most rain on this date, 1.16 in, fell in 1972.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1949 at Union 8 S, 8 miles south, 110 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
