The Romney 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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3.09 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1870. The next wettest, 1.63 inches, fell in 1995.
Romney’s center stands about 810 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 650 ft to 1,720 ft, a difference of 1,070 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Nathaniel Mountain, about 2,780 ft, 10 miles south-southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Marcellus Formation and Needmore Shale, undivided, from the Devonian, 359 to 422 million years old.
The section below crosses 10 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 10×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Siltstone, sandstone. Age: Devonian, 359 to 422 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Shale, siltstone. Age: Devonian, 359 to 422 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Shale, sandstone. Age: Devonian, 359 to 422 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Devonian, 359 to 422 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Sandstone, chert. Age: Devonian, 359 to 422 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 4 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 Romney reaches Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean by way of the South Branch Potomac and the Potomac: about 320 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Romney; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Romney has a hot-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 86° in July; winter nights fall to about 21° in January. A normal year brings about 29 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 38 inches of water.
On November 14 Romney normally reaches 55° and falls to 31°. The record high is 78°, in 1902; the record low 9°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 0.77 in, fell in 1972.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1870 at Romney 1 SW, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
