The Chidester 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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5.85 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1886. The next wettest, 5.21 inches, fell in 1987.
Chidester’s center stands about 270 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 190 ft to 370 ft, a difference of 180 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Bull Mountain, about 420 ft, 12 miles north.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Wilcox Group (sand, fine-detrital), from the Early Eocene, 48 to 56 million years old.
The section below crosses 2 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 62×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Sand, fine-detrital. Age: Early Eocene, 48 to 56 million years old. About 17 mi of the line.
Coarse-detrital, fine-detrital. Age: Holocene, less than 12,000 years old. About 6 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 Chidester reaches the Gulf of America by way of Barham Branch, White Oak Creek, the Little Missouri, the Ouachita, the Black River, the Red River, the Atchafalaya and the Lower Atchafalaya: about 540 river miles.
310 miles of the trip are on the Ouachita.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Chidester; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Chidester has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 92° in July; winter nights fall to about 31° in January. About 53 inches of rain fall in a normal year, with about 2 inches of snow.
On November 14 Chidester normally reaches 64° and falls to 40°. The record high is 87°, in 1955; the record low 19°, in 1907. The most rain on this date, 1.90 in, fell in 1957.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1886 at Camden 1, 14 miles southeast, 150 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
