The Altavista 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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Mostly sunny; warmer
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4.64 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1893. The next wettest, 4.11 inches, fell in 2009.
Altavista’s center stands about 550 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 510 ft to 810 ft, a difference of 300 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Johnson Mountain, about 1,340 ft, 7 miles north-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Fork Mountain Formation (mica-schist), from the Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old.
The section below crosses 11 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 30×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Mica-schist. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 9 mi of the line.
Biotite-gneiss. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Metagraywacke. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Schist. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Shale, sandstone, siltstone. Age: Triassic, 202 to 252 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Conglomerate. Age: Triassic, 202 to 252 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. 5 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 Altavista reaches Albemarle Sound and the Atlantic Ocean by way of the Roanoke: about 280 river miles.
Lake on the way: Roanoke Rapids Lake.
130 miles of the trip are on the Roanoke.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Altavista; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Altavista has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 87° in July; winter nights fall to about 26° in January. A normal year brings about 12 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 43 inches of water.
On November 14 Altavista normally reaches 59° and falls to 35°. The record high is 79°, in 1999; the record low 15°, in 1920. The most rain on this date, 1.97 in, fell in 1972.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1893 from the Lynchburg Area threaded record (Lynchburg Regional Airport, 15 miles north-northeast, 350 ft higher). NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
