The Atlanta 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; warmer
Partly cloudy
Partly cloudy
Partly cloudy
Chance of showers
Showers likely
67° on Nov. 15, 1999, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1956. Next is 65° in 2001.
Atlanta’s center stands about 1,270 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,100 ft to 1,620 ft, a difference of 520 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Meteor Hill, about 1,830 ft, 13 miles north-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Cambrian, undivided (sandstone), from the Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old.
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 30×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Sandstone. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 12 mi of the line.
Quartzite. Age: Paleoproterozoic, 1.6 to 2.5 billion years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Basalt, basaltic-andesite. Age: Paleoproterozoic, 1.6 to 2.5 billion years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Metavolcanic. Age: Paleoproterozoic, 1.6 to 2.5 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.
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 Atlanta reaches the Gulf of America by way of Devils Creek, the Chippewa and the Mississippi: about 1,890 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Lake Wissota and Holcombe Flowage.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Atlanta; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Atlanta has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 79° in July; winter nights fall to about 2° in January. About 34 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Atlanta normally reaches 40° and falls to 25°. The record high is 64°, in 1990; the record low −1°, in 1996. The most rain on this date, 0.13 in, fell in 2000.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1956 at Big Falls Hydro, 19 miles east. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
