The Cluster Springs 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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3.85 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1971. The next wettest, 3.85 inches, fell in 2020.
Cluster Springs’s center stands about 500 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 350 ft to 530 ft, a difference of 180 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Hagers Mountain, about 720 ft, 11 miles south-southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Interlayered Mafic and Felsic Metavolcanic Rocks (biotite-gneiss), from the Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old.
The section below crosses 8 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 56×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Biotite-gneiss. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 14 mi of the line.
Metadacite, metarhyolite, metavolcanic. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Pelitic-schist, gneiss. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Gneiss, amphibole-schist. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Metagabbro, metadiorite. Age: Neoproterozoic to Paleozoic, 252 to 1,000 million years old. About 0.9 mi of the line.
Metasedimentary. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 0.4 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 2 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 Cluster Springs reaches Albemarle Sound and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Church Spring Branch, the Hyco, the Dan and the Roanoke: about 220 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 Cluster Springs; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Cluster Springs has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 90° in July; winter nights fall to about 26° in January. A normal year brings about 6 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 46 inches of water.
On November 14 Cluster Springs normally reaches 63° and falls to 35°. The record high is 77°, in 1985; the record low 15°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 0.86 in, fell in 1972.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1971 at South Boston, 6 miles north-northeast, 170 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
