The Chatham 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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4.36 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1922. The next wettest, 2.62 inches, fell in 1925.
Chatham’s center stands about 730 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 590 ft to 860 ft, a difference of 270 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Brier Mountain, about 1,210 ft, 10 miles west.
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 5 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.
Mica-schist. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 17 mi of the line.
Metavolcanic. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Triassic, 202 to 252 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Amphibolite, biotite-gneiss, schist. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 0.8 mi of the line.
Conglomerate. Age: Triassic, 202 to 252 million years old. About 0.8 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale.
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 Chatham reaches Albemarle Sound and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Cherrystone Creek, the Banister, the Dan and the Roanoke: about 270 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 Chatham; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Chatham has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 86° in July; winter nights fall to about 24° in January. A normal year brings about 6 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 48 inches of water.
On November 14 Chatham normally reaches 60° and falls to 32°. The record high is 80°, in 1955; the record low 13°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 2.44 in, fell in 1972.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1922 at Chatham, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
