The Biltmore 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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3.11 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1895. The next wettest, 2.64 inches, fell in 2020.
Biltmore’s center stands about 1,900 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,490 ft to 3,100 ft, a difference of 1,610 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Pond Mountain, about 4,300 ft, 10 miles southeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Rome Formation (shale), from the Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old.
The section below crosses 8 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 8×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Dolostone. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Shale, sandstone. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Limestone, dolostone. Age: Cambrian to Ordovician, 445 to 542 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Quartzite. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Sandstone, arkose, conglomerate. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 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. 2 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 Biltmore reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Watauga, the South Fork Holston, the Holston, the Tennessee, the Ohio and the Mississippi: about 1,840 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Guntersville Lake, White Lake (historical), Pickwick Lake and Cummings Lake.
970 miles of the trip are on the Mississippi.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Biltmore; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Biltmore has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 86° in July; winter nights fall to about 25° in January. A normal year brings about 6 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 48 inches of water.
On November 14 Biltmore normally reaches 59° and falls to 33°. The record high is 84°, in 1895; the record low 13°, in 2014. The most rain on this date, 0.86 in, fell in 1915.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1895 at Elizabethton, here, 410 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
