The Gibson 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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−2° on Nov. 17, 1959, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1896. Next is −2° in 2019.
Gibson’s center stands about 890 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 790 ft to 910 ft, a difference of 120 ft: gently rolling country.
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 64×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Dolostone, limestone. Age: Early Mississippian to Middle Mississippian, 331 to 359 million years old. About 12 mi of the line.
Shale, sandstone, siltstone. Age: Early Pennsylvanian to Middle Pennsylvanian, 307 to 324 million years old. About 9 mi of the line.
Dolostone, limestone. Age: Middle Mississippian to Late Mississippian, 324 to 347 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Dolostone, limestone, siltstone. Age: Early Mississippian, 347 to 359 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.
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 Gibson reaches the Gulf of America by way of the South English, the English, the Iowa and the Mississippi: about 1,530 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Gibson; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Gibson has a hot-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 85° in July; winter nights fall to about 12° in January. About 37 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Gibson normally reaches 49° and falls to 28°. The record high is 77°, in 1999; the record low 2°, in 1959. The most rain on this date, 1.00 in, fell in 1902.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1896 at Sigourney, 13 miles southeast, 160 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
