The Unity 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.
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.
Unity’s center stands about 640 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 510 ft to 690 ft, a difference of 180 ft: gently rolling country.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Tuffaceous metasiltstone, 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 56×. 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 13 mi of the line.
Metadacite, metarhyolite, metavolcanic. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Metagabbro, metadiorite. Age: Neoproterozoic to Paleozoic, 252 to 1,000 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Phyllonite, schist. Age: Paleozoic, 252 to 542 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Metagranite. Age: Cambrian to Ordovician, 445 to 542 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Metagranite. Age: Neoproterozoic to Middle Cambrian, 520 to 650 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. 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 Unity reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of 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 Unity; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Unity 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 Unity 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, 16 miles northeast, 100 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.