The Central 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.
Central’s center stands about 1,670 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,460 ft to 1,880 ft, a difference of 420 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Unaka Mountain, about 5,200 ft, 13 miles south.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Knox Group, including Jonesboro Limestone, Newala Formation, Mascot Dolomite, Kingsport Formation, Longview Dolomite, Chepultepec Dolomite, Copper Ridge Dolomite, Conococheague Limestone (limestone, dolostone), from the Cambrian to Ordovician, 445 to 542 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 7×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Limestone, dolostone. Age: Cambrian to Ordovician, 445 to 542 million years old. About 12 mi of the line.
Age: Mesoproterozoic to Neoproterozoic, 965 to 1,003 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Shale, sandstone. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Granite. Age: Neoproterozoic, 700 to 712 million years old. About 0.9 mi of the line.
Dolostone. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 0.7 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 Central reaches the Gulf of America by way of Sinking Creek, the Watauga, the South Fork Holston, the Holston, the Tennessee, the Ohio and the Mississippi: about 1,830 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 Central; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Central 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 Central 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, 3 miles northeast, 180 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
