The Cantua Creek 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.
Partly cloudy
Partly cloudy; warmer
Chance of showers; cooler
Sunny
Showers likely
Showers likely
Mostly sunny
92° on Nov. 14, 1995, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1942. Next is 85° in 2016.
Cantua Creek’s center stands about 290 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 230 ft to 360 ft, a difference of 130 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Black Mountain, about 3,620 ft, 14 miles south-southwest.
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 6 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 10×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Coarse-detrital. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 20 mi of the line.
Sandstone, conglomerate. Age: Miocene to Pleistocene, less than 23 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sandstone, mudstone. Age: Oligocene to Pliocene, 2.6 to 34 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Sandstone, mudstone. Age: Eocene to Miocene, 5.3 to 56 million years old. About 0.3 mi of the line.
Sandstone, conglomerate. Age: Oligocene to Pleistocene, less than 34 million years old. About 0.3 mi of the line.
Mudstone, sandstone. Age: Paleocene to Oligocene, 23 to 66 million years old. About 0.1 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.
Cantua Creek has a cold desert climate. Summer afternoons average 99° in July; winter nights fall to about 36° in December. Barely 0.0 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Cantua Creek normally reaches 70° and falls to 42°. The record high is 92°, in 1995; the record low 28°, in 1961. The most rain on this date, 1.25 in, fell in 1953.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1942 at Five Points 5 SSW, 13 miles southeast. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
