The Portland 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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73° on Nov. 16, 2016, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1982. Next is 71° in 1999.
Portland’s center stands about 7,270 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 7,100 ft to 10,440 ft, a difference of 3,340 ft: mountain country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Uncompahgre Peak, about 14,240 ft, 13 miles east.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Gravels and alluviums (gravel, unconsolidated), from the Pleistocene, less than 0.5 million years old.
The section below crosses 10 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.
Andesite. Age: Late Eocene to Early Oligocene, 30 to 35 million years old. About 9 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Shale, sandstone. Age: Early Cretaceous to Late Cretaceous, 66 to 145 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Gravel, unconsolidated. Age: Pleistocene, less than 0.5 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Volcanic. Age: Oligocene, 23 to 34 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sandstone, mudstone, limestone. Age: Jurassic to Cretaceous, 66 to 202 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 4 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 Portland reaches the Gulf of California by way of Cutler Creek, the Uncompahgre, the Gunnison and the Colorado: about 1,280 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 Portland; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Portland has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 86° in July; winter nights fall to about 7° in January. A normal year brings about 81 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 16 inches of water.
On November 14 Portland normally reaches 52° and falls to 17°. The record high is 68°, in 2025; the record low −7°, in 2000. The most rain on this date, 0.50 in, fell in 2009.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1982 at Ridgway, 6 miles north-northwest, 220 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
