The Alamosa 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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−13° on Nov. 15, 1985, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1906. Next is −12° in 1940.
Alamosa’s center stands about 7,550 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 7,530 ft to 7,560 ft, a difference of 30 ft: nearly flat ground. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Sierro del Ojito, about 8,180 ft, 13 miles south-southeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Unclassified surficial deposits and underlying Alamosa Fm in San Luis Valley (unconsolidated), from the Tertiary to Quaternary, less than 66 million years old.
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.
Unconsolidated. Age: Tertiary to Quaternary, less than 66 million years old. About 24 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 Alamosa reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Rio Grande: about 1,770 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Paz Ramirez Lake, Amistad Reservoir, Elephant Butte Reservoir and Caballo Reservoir.
760 miles of the trip are on the Rio Grande.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Alamosa; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Alamosa has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 83° in July; winter nights fall to about −1° in January. A normal year brings about 28 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 7 inches of water.
On November 14 Alamosa normally reaches 49° and falls to 13°. The record high is 67°, in 2017; the record low −5°, in 1940. The most rain on this date, 0.54 in, fell in 1985.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1906 from the Alamosa Area threaded record (Alamosa-Bergman Field, 2 miles south-southeast). NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
