The Erwin 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.
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny; warmer
Sunny; warmer
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Sunny
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny
3.32 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1979. The next wettest, 2.81 inches, fell in 2009.
Erwin’s center stands about 1,720 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,600 ft to 3,100 ft, a difference of 1,500 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Big Bald, about 5,490 ft, 12 miles south-southwest.
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 12 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 5×. 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, sandstone. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Sandstone, arkose, conglomerate. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Quartzite. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Age: Mesoproterozoic to Neoproterozoic, 965 to 1,003 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Granite. Age: Neoproterozoic, 700 to 712 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Dolostone. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 2 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 Erwin reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Nolichucky, the French Broad, the Tennessee, the Ohio and the Mississippi: about 1,820 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 Erwin; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Erwin has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 85° in July; winter nights fall to about 24° in January. A normal year brings about 9 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 47 inches of water.
On November 14 Erwin normally reaches 59° and falls to 32°. The record high is 73°, in 2005; the record low 15°, in 2019. The most rain on this date, 0.40 in, fell in 1986.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1979 at Erwin 1 W, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
