The Valley Falls 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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4.02 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1928. The next wettest, 3.28 inches, fell in 2018.
Valley Falls’s center stands about 800 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 760 ft to 950 ft, a difference of 190 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Thicketty Mountain, about 1,260 ft, 13 miles east-northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Biotite gneiss and muscovite-biotite gneiss (biotite-gneiss), from the Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old.
The section below crosses 5 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 38×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Biotite-gneiss. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 19 mi of the line.
Gneiss. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Mica-schist. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Biotite-gneiss. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 0.8 mi of the line.
Amphibolite. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 0.3 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 Valley Falls reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of Lawsons Fork Creek, the Pacolet, the Broad, the Congaree, the Santee and the South Santee: about 300 river miles.
Lake on the way: Lib Pines Lake.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Valley Falls; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Valley Falls has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 89° in July; winter nights fall to about 27° in January. About 52 inches of rain fall in a normal year, with about 1 inch of snow.
On November 14 Valley Falls normally reaches 63° and falls to 35°. The record high is 79°, in 1931; the record low 18°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 1.64 in, fell in 1972.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1928 at Chesnee 7 WSW, 7 miles north. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
