The Avra Valley 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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92° on Nov. 12, 1999, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1987. Next is 91° in 2013.
Avra Valley’s center stands about 1,920 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,890 ft to 1,990 ft, a difference of 100 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Amole Peak, about 4,350 ft, 15 miles southeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Quaternary surficial deposits, undivided (sand, silt, clay), from the Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2 million years old.
The section below crosses 7 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 17×. 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, silt, clay. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2 million years old. About 10 mi of the line.
Sand, gravel. Age: Holocene, less than 10,000 years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Gravel, sand. Age: Late Pliocene to Pleistocene, 0.8 to 3 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Rhyolite, dacite, andesite. Age: Late Cretaceous to Early Eocene, 50 to 82 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone, conglomerate. Age: Middle Jurassic to Late Jurassic, 150 to 170 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Granite, granodiorite, diorite. Age: Late Cretaceous to Early Eocene, 50 to 82 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. 1 smaller unit 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.
Avra Valley has a hot desert climate. Summer afternoons average 104° in June; winter nights fall to about 40° in December. About 10 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Avra Valley normally reaches 77° and falls to 49°. The record high is 90°, in 1999; the record low 35°, in 2022. The most rain on this date, 0.30 in, fell in 1991.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1987 at Picacho 8 SE, 15 miles north-northwest. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
