Mount Mitchell

Surveyor's mark embedded in the observation tower notes the elevation of 6684 feet above sea level

The peak is the highest mountain in the United States east of the Mississippi River,[4][5] and the highest in all of eastern North America south of the Arctic Cordillera. The nearest higher peaks are in the Black Hills of South Dakota and the highland foothills of Colorado. The mountain's topographic isolation is calculated from the nearest discernible single higher point: Lone Butte, which is 1,189 miles (1,913 km) away in southeastern Colorado.[6]

The Cherokee people, who long occupied this area as part of their homeland, called the mountain Attakulla.[7]

European-American settlers first called the mountain Black Dome for its rounded shape. They later named it after Elisha Mitchell, a professor at the University of North Carolina, who first explored the Black Mountain region in 1835. He determined that the height of the range exceeded by several hundred feet that of Mount Washington in New Hampshire. The latter had been commonly thought at the time to be the highest point in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. Mitchell fell to his death at nearby Mitchell Falls in 1857, where he had returned to verify his earlier measurements.

A 4.6-mile (7.4 km) road (NC 128) connects the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway to a parking lot where a steep paved 980-foot (300 m) trail leads through a conifer forest to the summit. The 40-foot (12 m) stone observation tower on the summit was torn down in late 2006. A new observation deck was constructed and opened to visitors in January 2009.[8]

Mount Mitchell was formed during the Precambrian when marine deposits were metamorphosed into gneiss and schist. These metasedimentary rocks were later uplifted during the Alleghenian orogeny.[9] The soils are well drained, dark brown and stony with fine-earth material ranging in texture from sandy clay loam to loam or sandy loam; Burton and Craggey are the most common series around the summit.[10]

The mountain's summit is coated in a dense stand of Southern Appalachian spruce-fir forest, which consists primarily of two evergreen species—the red spruce and the Fraser fir. Most of the mature Fraser firs, however, were killed off by the non-native Balsam woolly adelgid in the latter half of the 20th century. The high elevations expose plant life to high levels of pollution, including acid precipitation in the form of rain, snow, and fog. These acids damage the red spruce trees in part by releasing natural metals from the soil, such as aluminum, and by leaching important minerals. To what extent this pollution harms the high-altitude ecosystem is debatable.[12]

While the mountain is still mostly lush and green in the summer, many dead Fraser fir trunks can be seen due to these serious problems. Reducing air pollution is a difficult issue, as the pollutants are often carried by air to this area from long distances. Sources can be local or hundreds of miles or kilometers away, requiring cooperation from as far away as the Midwest.

Wildflowers are abundant all summer long. Young fir and spruce trees do well in the subalpine climate, and their cones feed the birds along with wild blueberry and blackberry shrubs.

The second highest point in eastern North America, Mount Craig at 6,647 feet (2,026 m), is roughly a mile to the north of Mount Mitchell.

Climate

Mount Mitchell Fall Foliage.

The summit area of Mount Mitchell is marked by a warm-summer humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb), with mild summers and long, moderately cold winters, being more similar to southeastern Canada than the southeastern U.S. The monthly daily average temperature ranges from 25.1 °F (−3.8 °C) in January to 59.6 °F (15.3 °C) in July. The coldest temperature ever recorded in the state occurred there on January 21, 1985 when it fell to −34 °F (−36.7 °C), during a severe cold spell that brought freezing temperatures as far south as Miami. It is also the coldest average reporting station in the state at 42.9 °F (6.1 °C), well below any other station.[13]

Unlike the lower elevations in the surrounding regions, heavy snows often fall from December to March, with 50 inches (1.27 m) accumulating in the Great Blizzard of 1993 and 33 inches (0.84 m) in the January 2016 blizzard.[14][13] Due to the high elevation, precipitation is heavy and reliable year-round, averaging 81.09 inches (2,060 mm) for the year, with no month receiving less than 5 in (127 mm) of average precipitation. The summit is often windy, with recorded gusts of up to 178 mph (286 km/h).[15]

Mount Mitchell recorded a new state record of 139.94 inches (3,554.5 mm) of precipitation in 2018, which is also the highest total rainfall recorded during a calendar year anywhere east of the Cascade Range in the Contiguous United States.[16]

 

Climate data for Mount Mitchell (1991–2020 normals, records 1980–present)
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °F (°C)	61 (16)	62 (17)	73 (23)	73 (23)	78 (26)	79 (26)	80 (27)	81 (27)	77 (25)	73 (23)	67 (19)	64 (18)	81 (27)
Average high °F (°C)	33.5 (0.8)	35.5 (1.9)	41.0 (5.0)	50.2 (10.1)	57.8 (14.3)	63.8 (17.7)	66.8 (19.3)	66.0 (18.9)	61.4 (16.3)	53.6 (12.0)	44.8 (7.1)	37.7 (3.2)	51.0 (10.6)
Daily mean °F (°C)	25.1 (−3.8)	27.0 (−2.8)	32.3 (0.2)	41.1 (5.1)	49.5 (9.7)	56.3 (13.5)	59.6 (15.3)	58.6 (14.8)	53.8 (12.1)	45.2 (7.3)	36.2 (2.3)	29.6 (−1.3)	42.9 (6.1)
Average low °F (°C)	16.7 (−8.5)	18.5 (−7.5)	23.6 (−4.7)	32.0 (0.0)	41.3 (5.2)	48.7 (9.3)	52.3 (11.3)	51.2 (10.7)	46.2 (7.9)	36.9 (2.7)	27.6 (−2.4)	21.4 (−5.9)	34.7 (1.5)
Record low °F (°C)	−34 (−37)	−20 (−29)	−11 (−24)	1 (−17)	14 (−10)	28 (−2)	38 (3)	32 (0)	23 (−5)	13 (−11)	−2 (−19)	−19 (−28)	−34 (−37)
Average precipitation inches (mm)	7.47 (190)	5.62 (143)	7.22 (183)	6.52 (166)	6.08 (154)	5.46 (139)	6.92 (176)	7.69 (195)	8.76 (223)	6.29 (160)	6.17 (157)	6.89 (175)	81.09 (2,060)
Average snowfall inches (cm)	19.2 (49)	18.6 (47)	18.5 (47)	7.1 (18)	1.4 (3.6)	0.0 (0.0)	0.0 (0.0)	0.0 (0.0)	0.0 (0.0)	0.7 (1.8)	3.9 (9.9)	19.7 (50)	89.1 (226)
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.01 in)	14.1	12.4	14.1	12.6	14.2	16.1	17.8	16.1	12.7	10.3	10.4	13.1	163.9
Average snowy days (≥ 0.1 in)	6.4	6.5	4.9	2.5	0.3	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.4	2.0	5.2	28.2
Source: NOAA[17][11]

• List of mountains in North Carolina
• Mountains-to-Sea Trail
• Assault on Mount Mitchell, bicycling endurance

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Mount Mitchell (category)

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