The Virgilina 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.
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny
Partly cloudy
Partly cloudy
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny
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.
Virgilina’s center stands about 530 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 390 ft to 580 ft, a difference of 190 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Hagers Mountain, about 720 ft, 12 miles west-southwest.
The section below crosses 4 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 46×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Metavolcanic. Age: Neoproterozoic to Cambrian, 487 to 1,000 million years old. About 10 mi of the line.
Phyllite, slate. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Greenstone. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Metasedimentary. 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.
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 Virgilina reaches Albemarle Sound and the Atlantic Ocean by way of North Fork Aarons Creek, Aarons 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 Virgilina; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Virgilina 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 Virgilina 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, 12 miles north-northwest, 200 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
