The Central 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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−16° on Nov. 13, 2014, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1893. Next is −6° in 1951.
Central’s center stands about 8,790 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 7,900 ft to 9,700 ft, a difference of 1,800 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Gray Wolf Mountain, about 13,580 ft, 15 miles south-southwest.
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 3×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Biotite-gneiss, schist, migmatite. Age: Paleoproterozoic, 1.6 to 2.5 billion years old. About 14 mi of the line.
Gneiss. Age: Paleoproterozoic, 1.6 to 2.5 billion years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated. Age: Pleistocene, less than 0.5 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Granite. Age: Paleoproterozoic, 1.6 to 2.5 billion years old. About 0.7 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 Central reaches the Gulf of America by way of North Clear Creek, Clear Creek, the South Platte, the Platte, the Missouri and the Mississippi: about 2,430 river miles.
1,170 miles of the trip are on the Mississippi.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Central; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Central has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 77° in July; winter nights fall to about 15° in December. A normal year brings about 106 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 18 inches of water.
On November 14 Central normally reaches 45° and falls to 22°. The record high is 68°, in 1999; the record low −2°, in 2014. The most rain on this date, 0.41 in, fell in 1978.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1893 at Georgetown, 12 miles west-southwest, 270 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
