The West Rancho Dominguez 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.
94° on Nov. 12, 1974, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1944. Next is 93° in 2019.
West Rancho Dominguez’s center stands about 80 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 20 ft to 200 ft, a difference of 180 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is San Pedro Hill, about 1,480 ft, 11 miles south-southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Older Quaternary alluvium and marine deposits (coarse-detrital), from the Pleistocene, less than 2.6 million years old.
The section below crosses 2 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 64×. 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 10 mi of the line.
Coarse-detrital. Age: Pleistocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 10 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 West Rancho Dominguez reaches the Pacific Ocean by way of Compton Creek and the Los Angeles: about 10 river miles.
Often dry. About 80% of the way is mapped as streams that run only after rain or snowmelt; the water makes the whole trip in floods.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of West Rancho Dominguez; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
West Rancho Dominguez has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 77° in August; winter nights fall to about 49° in December. About 12 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 West Rancho Dominguez normally reaches 71° and falls to 54°. The record high is 90°, in 2013; the record low 43°, in 2000. The most rain on this date, 1.27 in, fell in 1972.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1944 from the Los Angeles Airport Area threaded record (Los Angeles International Airport, 7 miles west-northwest). NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.