The Shonto 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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77° on Nov. 13, 2025, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1939. Next is 70° in 1947.
Shonto’s center stands about 6,310 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 6,200 ft to 6,740 ft, a difference of 540 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Tall Mountain, about 7,600 ft, 14 miles north.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Glen Canyon Group (sandstone), from the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic, 180 to 210 million years old.
The section below crosses 4 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 11×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Sandstone. Age: Late Triassic to Early Jurassic, 180 to 210 million years old. About 18 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone. Age: Early Jurassic to Late Jurassic, 160 to 180 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Sandstone, shale, coal. Age: Late Cretaceous, 84 to 88 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sandstone, shale. Age: Late Cretaceous, 88 to 97 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.
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.
Shonto has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 86° in July; winter nights fall to about 22° in January. A normal year brings about 36 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 11 inches of water.
On November 14 Shonto normally reaches 51° and falls to 31°. The record high is 68°, in 2018; the record low 7°, in 1985. The most rain on this date, 0.19 in, fell in 2009.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1939 at Betatakin, 8 miles northeast, 980 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
