The Alpine 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.
Chance of showers
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−3° on Nov. 16, 1955, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1893. Next is −3° in 2012.
Alpine’s center stands about 8,250 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 8,090 ft to 10,310 ft, a difference of 2,220 ft: mountain country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Del Norte Peak, about 12,380 ft, 7 miles south.
The section below crosses 4 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 5×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Volcanic. Age: Oligocene, 23 to 34 million years old. About 9 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Andesite. Age: Late Eocene to Early Oligocene, 30 to 35 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old. About 2 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 Alpine reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Rio Grande: about 1,840 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 Alpine; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Alpine has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 81° in July; winter nights fall to about 7° in January. A normal year brings about 39 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 10 inches of water.
On November 14 Alpine normally reaches 49° and falls to 18°. The record high is 65°, in 1999; the record low 0°, in 1940. The most rain on this date, 0.80 in, fell in 1993.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1893 at Del Norte 3 ENE, 15 miles east, 400 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
