The Mission Canyon 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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5.67 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1893. The next wettest, 4.05 inches, fell in 1965.
Mission Canyon’s center stands about 730 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 20 ft to 3,630 ft, a difference of 3,610 ft: mountain country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Hildreth Peak, about 4,980 ft, 14 miles northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Oligocene nonmarine rocks, unit 2 (Central and Southern California) (sandstone, conglomerate), from the Middle Eocene to Early Miocene, 16 to 48 million years old.
The section below crosses 8 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 4×. 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 4 mi of the line.
Mudstone, sandstone. Age: Paleocene to Oligocene, 23 to 66 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Siltstone-mudstone. Age: Early Cretaceous, 113 to 145 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Sandstone, conglomerate. Age: Middle Eocene to Early Miocene, 16 to 48 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Coarse-detrital. Age: Pleistocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Coarse-detrital. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 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. 2 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 Mission Canyon reaches the Pacific Ocean by way of Mission Creek: about 2 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Mission Canyon; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Mission Canyon has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate. Summer afternoons average 78° in August; winter nights fall to about 46° in December. About 19 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Mission Canyon normally reaches 71° and falls to 50°. The record high is 89°, in 2007; the record low 32°, in 1938. The most rain on this date, 2.80 in, fell in 2025.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1893 at Santa Barbara, 3 miles southeast, 710 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
