The Buford 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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3.79 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1896. The next wettest, 3.33 inches, fell in 2009.
Buford’s center stands about 660 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 530 ft to 710 ft, a difference of 180 ft: gently rolling country.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Persimmon Fork Formation (metavolcanic), from the Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 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 49×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Metavolcanic. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 15 mi of the line.
Metagranite, metadiorite. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Granite. Age: Carboniferous to Permian, 252 to 359 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sand, gravel. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Clay, sand. Age: Late Cretaceous, 66 to 72 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Metasiltstone. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 0.8 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 Buford reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of Gills Creek, Cane Creek, the Catawba, the Wateree, the Congaree, the Santee and the South Santee: about 260 river miles.
Lake on the way: Lib Pines Lake.
90 miles of the trip are on the Wateree.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Buford; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Buford has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 91° in July; winter nights fall to about 30° in January. About 48 inches of rain fall in a normal year, with about 2 inches of snow.
On November 14 Buford normally reaches 64° and falls to 38°. The record high is 83°, in 1951; the record low 15°, in 1920. The most rain on this date, 1.68 in, fell in 1997.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1896 at Monroe 2 SE, 17 miles north-northeast, 120 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
