The Bulls Gap 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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3.30 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1889. The next wettest, 3.01 inches, fell in 1935.
Bulls Gap’s center stands about 1,180 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,100 ft to 1,500 ft, a difference of 400 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Short Mountain, about 2,660 ft, 10 miles north-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Sevier Shale, from the Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old.
The section below crosses 12 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 19×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Shale. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 15 mi of the line.
Dolostone. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Shale, limestone. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Dolostone. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 0.7 mi of the line.
Limestone, dolostone. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 0.6 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 6 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 Bulls Gap reaches the Gulf of America by way of Whitehorn Creek, Bent Creek, the Nolichucky, the French Broad, the Tennessee, the Ohio and the Mississippi: about 1,750 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 Bulls Gap; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Bulls Gap 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 49 inches of water.
On November 14 Bulls Gap normally reaches 59° and falls to 35°. The record high is 79°, in 1993; the record low 10°, in 1906. The most rain on this date, 0.76 in, fell in 1915.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1889 at Rogersville 1 NE, 12 miles north-northeast, 180 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
