The Greenback 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
Partly cloudy; warmer
Mostly sunny
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Sunny
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3.86 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1871. The next wettest, 3.51 inches, fell in 1957.
Greenback’s center stands about 900 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 820 ft to 1,170 ft, a difference of 350 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Cockspur Knob, about 2,670 ft, 10 miles east-southeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Nolichucky Shale, and Maryville, Rogersville, and Rutledge Formations, and Pumpkin Valley Shale, from the Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old.
The section below crosses 13 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 11×. 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, limestone. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Dolostone. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 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.
Shale. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 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. 7 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 Greenback reaches the Gulf of America by way of Baker Creek, the Tennessee, the Ohio and the Mississippi: about 1,630 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 Greenback; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Greenback has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 88° in July; winter nights fall to about 30° in January. About 52 inches of rain fall in a normal year, with about 5 inches of snow.
On November 14 Greenback normally reaches 60° and falls to 38°. The record high is 80°, in 1993; the record low 20°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 2.75 in, fell in 1915.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1871 from the Knoxville Area threaded record (Knoxville Airport, 15 miles northeast). NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
