The Erie 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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−14° on Nov. 11, 1950, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1893. Next is −13° in 1916.
Erie’s center stands about 5,030 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 4,950 ft to 5,270 ft, a difference of 320 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Boulder Mountain, about 8,460 ft, 15 miles west-southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Eolian deposits (sand, silt), from the Quaternary, 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 22×. 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, shale, claystone. Age: Late Cretaceous, 66 to 100 million years old. About 17 mi of the line.
Sand, silt. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old. About 8 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 Erie reaches the Gulf of America by way of Coal Creek, Boulder Creek, Saint Vrain Creek, the South Platte, the Platte, the Missouri and the Mississippi: about 2,380 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 Erie; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Erie has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 91° in July; winter nights fall to about 14° in January. About 15 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Erie normally reaches 54° and falls to 24°. The record high is 78°, in 1999; the record low −6°, in 1940. The most rain on this date, 0.79 in, fell in 1994.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1893 at Longmont 2 ESE, 8 miles north. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
