The Modoc 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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5.20 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1961. The next wettest, 5.00 inches, fell in 2009.
Modoc’s center stands about 410 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 270 ft to 450 ft, a difference of 180 ft: gently rolling country.
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 57×. 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 9 mi of the line.
Paragneiss. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Slate. Age: Middle Cambrian to Ordovician, 445 to 521 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Mylonite. Age: Carboniferous to Permian, 252 to 359 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Gneiss. Age: Precambrian to Paleozoic. About 1 mi of the line.
Age: Carboniferous to Permian, 252 to 359 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.
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 Modoc reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of the Savannah: about 220 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Modoc; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Modoc has a cold desert climate. Summer afternoons average 92° in July; winter nights fall to about 32° in January. Barely 0.0 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Modoc normally reaches 68° and falls to 40°. The record high is 82°, in 2020; the record low 18°, in 1984. The most rain on this date, 2.60 in, fell in 2008.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1961 at Appling 2 NW, 14 miles south-southwest. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
