The Saguache 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.
Mostly cloudy
Mostly sunny; warmer
Partly cloudy
Showers likely
Mostly sunny
Partly cloudy
Chance of showers
70° on Nov. 17, 1929, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1894. Next is 68° in 1914.
Saguache’s center stands about 7,710 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 7,650 ft to 8,690 ft, a difference of 1,040 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Hayden Peak, about 12,070 ft, 13 miles north.
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 4 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 6×. 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 10 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated. Age: Tertiary to Quaternary, less than 66 million years old. About 10 mi of the line.
Gravel, unconsolidated. Age: Pleistocene, less than 0.5 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Volcanic. Age: Oligocene, 23 to 34 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.
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 Saguache reaches the closed basin of the San Luis Valley by way of Saguache Creek: about 55 river miles. The closed basin of the San Luis Valley has no outlet to the sea: the water leaves only by evaporating or soaking into the ground.
Often dry. About 60% of the way is mapped as streams that run only after rain or snowmelt; the water makes the whole trip in floods.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Saguache; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Saguache has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 80° in July; winter nights fall to about 7° in January. About 8 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Saguache normally reaches 50° and falls to 21°. The record high is 68°, in 1914; the record low −8°, in 1898. The most rain on this date, 2.00 in, fell in 2004.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1894 at Saguache, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
