The Springfield 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.
Springfield’s center stands about 740 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 580 ft to 1,520 ft, a difference of 940 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Dans Mountain, about 2,860 ft, 14 miles northwest.
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 9 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 12×. 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 6 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, sandstone. Age: Devonian, 359 to 422 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Devonian, 359 to 422 million years old. About 2 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. 3 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 Springfield reaches Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Abernathy Run, the South Branch Potomac and the Potomac: about 310 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Springfield; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Springfield 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 Springfield 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, 9 miles south-southwest. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
