The Buellton 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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4.92 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1952. The next wettest, 4.50 inches, fell in 1965.
Buellton’s center stands about 370 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 290 ft to 1,570 ft, a difference of 1,280 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Figueroa Mountain, about 4,510 ft, 15 miles northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Quaternary alluvium and marine deposits (coarse-detrital), from the Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 million years old.
The section below crosses 9 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 8×. 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, mudstone. Age: Oligocene to Pliocene, 2.6 to 34 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Mudstone, sandstone. Age: Paleocene to Oligocene, 23 to 66 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Sandstone, conglomerate. Age: Miocene to Pleistocene, less than 23 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Coarse-detrital. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Sandstone, mudstone. Age: Miocene to Pleistocene, less than 23 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Siltstone-mudstone. Age: Early Cretaceous, 113 to 145 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. 3 smaller units 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.
A raindrop that lands in Buellton reaches the Pacific Ocean by way of Zaca Creek and the Santa Ynez: about 35 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Buellton; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Buellton has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate. Summer afternoons average 93° in August; winter nights fall to about 33° in December. About 21 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Buellton normally reaches 75° and falls to 38°. The record high is 93°, in 2021; the record low 31°, in 2022. The most rain on this date, 3.26 in, fell in 2025.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1952 at Cachuma Lake, 12 miles east, 420 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
