The Laguna Niguel 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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34° on Nov. 17, 1958, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1921. Next is 37° in 1938.
Laguna Niguel’s center stands about 430 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 60 ft to 830 ft, a difference of 770 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Sugarloaf, about 3,260 ft, 15 miles east-northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Miocene marine rocks (sandstone, mudstone), from the Oligocene to Pliocene, 2.6 to 34 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 15×. 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 11 mi of the line.
Sandstone, mudstone. Age: Miocene to Pleistocene, less than 23 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Sandstone, conglomerate. Age: Middle Eocene to Early Miocene, 16 to 48 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 Laguna Niguel reaches the Pacific Ocean by way of the Arroyo Salado and Salt Creek: about 2 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Laguna Niguel; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Laguna Niguel has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 74° in September; winter nights fall to about 50° in January. About 9 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Laguna Niguel normally reaches 69° and falls to 55°. The record high is 81°, in 1940; the record low 39°, in 1938. The most rain on this date, 1.11 in, fell in 1944.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1921 at Newport Beach Harbor, 12 miles west-northwest, 420 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
