The Kingston 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.
Sunny
Mostly sunny; warmer
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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.
Kingston’s center stands about 770 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 740 ft to 1,110 ft, a difference of 370 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Big Brushy Mountain, about 3,160 ft, 15 miles north-northeast.
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 14 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 13×. 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. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Dolostone, limestone. Age: Cambrian to Ordovician, 445 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.
Sandstone, shale. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Dolostone, 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.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 8 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 Kingston reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Tennessee, the Ohio and the Mississippi: about 1,580 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 Kingston; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Kingston 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 Kingston 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, 18 miles east-northeast, 130 ft higher). NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
