The Riverdale 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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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.
Riverdale’s center stands about 330 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 320 ft to 520 ft, a difference of 200 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Bethel Hill, about 660 ft, 12 miles south.
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 7 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 52×. 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 9 mi of the line.
Pelitic-schist, gneiss. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Phyllite, slate. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Granite, gneiss. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Greenstone. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Metavolcanic, schist. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 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. 1 smaller unit 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 Riverdale reaches Albemarle Sound and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Stokes Creek, 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 Riverdale; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Riverdale 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 Riverdale 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, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
