The Coalfield 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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17° on Nov. 15, 1969, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1947. Next is 19° in 1974.
Coalfield’s center stands about 1,030 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 860 ft to 2,240 ft, a difference of 1,380 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Redoak Mountain, about 3,410 ft, 14 miles northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Crooked Fork Group, including Wartburg Sandstone, Glenmary Shale, Coalfield Sandstone, Burnt Mill Shale, Crossville Sandstone, Dorton Shale (sandstone, shale), from the Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old.
The section below crosses 15 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.
Sandstone, shale. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Dolostone, limestone. Age: Cambrian to Ordovician, 445 to 542 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Limestone. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 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. 9 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 Coalfield reaches the Gulf of America by way of Jones Creek, the Little Emory, the Emory, the Tennessee, the Ohio and the Mississippi: about 1,590 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 Coalfield; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Coalfield has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 89° in July; winter nights fall to about 30° in January. About 56 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Coalfield normally reaches 61° and falls to 38°. The record high is 78°, in 1999; the record low 20°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 1.40 in, fell in 2024.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1947 from the Oak Ridge Area threaded record (Oak Ridge Asos, 10 miles east, 130 ft lower). NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
