The Lowell 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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3.64 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1890. The next wettest, 3.43 inches, fell in 1922.
Lowell’s center stands about 1,340 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,220 ft to 1,430 ft, a difference of 210 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Round Mountain, about 1,750 ft, 15 miles south-southeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Boone Formation (limestone), from the Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old.
The section below crosses 3 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 36×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Limestone. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 19 mi of the line.
Sandstone, shale, limestone. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Shale, sandstone. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 0.5 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 Lowell reaches the Gulf of America by way of Puppy Creek, Spring Creek, Osage Creek, the Illinois, the Arkansas and the Mississippi: about 1,110 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Murray Lake, Tenkiller Ferry Lake and Ozark Lake.
600 miles of the trip are on the Mississippi.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Lowell; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Lowell has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 89° in July; winter nights fall to about 27° in January. About 46 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Lowell normally reaches 59° and falls to 38°. The record high is 79°, in 1909; the record low 11°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 3.62 in, fell in 1993.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1890 at Fayetteville Experiment Sta, 11 miles south-southwest. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
