The Morristown 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.
Partly cloudy
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81° on Nov. 14, 1993, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1982. Next is 78° in 2020.
Morristown’s center stands about 1,290 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,150 ft to 1,690 ft, a difference of 540 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Short Mountain, about 2,660 ft, 13 miles north-northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Newala Formation, including Mascot Dolomite and Kingsport Formation (dolostone), from the Ordovician, 445 to 487 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 14×. 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. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Dolostone. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Limestone, shale. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Dolostone. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Limestone, dolostone. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 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 Morristown reaches the Gulf of America by way of West Fork Creek, Turkey Creek, the Holston, the Tennessee, the Ohio and the Mississippi: about 1,730 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 Morristown; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Morristown has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 86° in July; winter nights fall to about 27° in January. A normal year brings about 9 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 48 inches of water.
On November 14 Morristown normally reaches 59° and falls to 36°. The record high is 81°, in 1993; the record low 16°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 0.24 in, fell in 2024.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1982 at Morristown Radio Wcrk, 2 miles west-southwest. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
