The Parachute 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.
Partly cloudy
Mostly sunny
Partly cloudy
Showers likely
Showers likely; cooler
Showers likely
Showers likely
−1° on Nov. 17, 2000, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1947. Next is 0° in 1987.
Parachute’s center stands about 5,080 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 5,030 ft to 7,430 ft, a difference of 2,400 ft: mountain country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is North Mamm Peak, about 11,000 ft, 11 miles east-southeast.
The section below crosses 8 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.
Unconsolidated. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Shale, sandstone, marlstone. Age: Eocene, 34 to 56 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Claystone. Age: Paleocene to Eocene, 34 to 66 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Shale, oil-shale. Age: Eocene, 34 to 56 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone. Age: Eocene, 34 to 56 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Basalt. Age: Miocene to Pliocene, 2.6 to 23 million years old. About 0.6 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 2 smaller units along the line are not listed.
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 Parachute reaches the Gulf of California by way of Parachute Creek and the Colorado: about 1,210 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Lake Mead, Lake Powell, Lake Mohave and Lake Havasu.
Seldom reaches the sea. Dams and canals now take nearly all of the Colorado before its old delta in Mexico.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Parachute; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Parachute has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 90° in July; winter nights fall to about 12° in January. A normal year brings about 54 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 17 inches of water.
On November 14 Parachute normally reaches 51° and falls to 22°. The record high is 68°, in 2025; the record low 3°, in 2000. The most rain on this date, 0.73 in, fell in 1955.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1947 at Altenbern, 18 miles west-northwest, 560 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
