The Westcliffe 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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−18° on Nov. 14, 1915, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1895. Next is −18° in 1932.
Westcliffe’s center stands about 7,880 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 7,740 ft to 8,220 ft, a difference of 480 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Crestone Peak, about 14,180 ft, 13 miles south-southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Older gravels and alluviums (gravel, unconsolidated), from the Pleistocene, 0.2 to 1.6 million years old.
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.
Gneiss. Age: Paleoproterozoic, 1.6 to 2.5 billion years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Gravel, unconsolidated. Age: Pleistocene, less than 0.5 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Conglomerate, sandstone, siltstone. Age: Carboniferous to Permian, 252 to 324 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Gabbro, diorite. Age: Paleoproterozoic, 1.6 to 2.5 billion years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Quartz-latite. Age: Oligocene, 23 to 34 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Gravel, unconsolidated. Age: Pleistocene, 0.2 to 1.6 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. 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 Westcliffe reaches the Gulf of America by way of Grape Creek, the Arkansas and the Mississippi: about 1,940 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Murray Lake and Ozark Lake.
1,010 miles of the trip are on the Arkansas.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Westcliffe; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Westcliffe has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 81° in July; winter nights fall to about 8° in January. A normal year brings about 84 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 14 inches of water.
On November 14 Westcliffe normally reaches 50° and falls to 17°. The record high is 69°, in 1999; the record low −18°, in 1915. The most rain on this date, 0.68 in, fell in 1985.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1895 at Westcliffe, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
