The Esmont 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.
4.90 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1957. The next wettest, 2.82 inches, fell in 2009.
Esmont’s center stands about 500 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 400 ft to 760 ft, a difference of 360 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Heard Mountain, about 2,400 ft, 10 miles northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Candler Formation - Phyllite and schist (phyllite, schist), from the Cambrian, 487 to 542 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 11×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Metagraywacke, mica-schist. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Granulite, gneiss. Age: Mesoproterozoic, 1 to 1.6 billion years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Shale, sandstone, siltstone. Age: Triassic, 202 to 252 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Phyllite, schist. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Argillite. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Biotite-gneiss. Age: Mesoproterozoic, 1 to 1.6 billion 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. 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 Esmont reaches Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Rock Castle Creek, Totier Creek and the James: about 190 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Esmont; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Esmont has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 86° in July; winter nights fall to about 24° in January. A normal year brings about 12 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 44 inches of water.
On November 14 Esmont normally reaches 58° and falls to 34°. The record high is 78°, in 1999; the record low 14°, in 2019. The most rain on this date, 1.47 in, fell in 1972.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1957 at Scottsville 6 SE, 13 miles east-southeast, 190 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.