The Appomattox 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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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.
Appomattox’s center stands about 860 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 670 ft to 920 ft, a difference of 250 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Spears Mountain, about 1,590 ft, 14 miles north-northeast.
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 33×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Greenstone, gneiss. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Metagraywacke, mica-schist. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Metavolcanic, mica-schist, gneiss. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Mica-schist. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Metagraywacke. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Marble. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 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. 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 Appomattox reaches Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean by way of the South Fork Appomattox, the Appomattox and the James: about 230 river miles.
Lake on the way: Lake Chesdin.
110 miles of the trip are on the Appomattox.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Appomattox; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Appomattox 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 Appomattox 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, 21 miles west). NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
