The Lakota 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 sunny
Partly cloudy; warmer
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny
Partly cloudy
Partly cloudy
Showers likely
80° on Nov. 14, 1999, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1954. Next is 75° in 2001.
Lakota’s center stands about 1,150 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,120 ft to 1,170 ft, a difference of 50 ft: nearly flat ground.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Lime Creek Formation (shale, limestone, dolostone), from the Late Devonian, 374 to 384 million years old.
The section below crosses 2 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.
Sandstone, shale. Age: Early Cretaceous to Late Cretaceous, 94 to 113 million years old. About 14 mi of the line.
Shale, limestone, dolostone. Age: Late Devonian, 374 to 384 million years old. About 10 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 Lakota reaches the Gulf of America by way of the West Branch Blue Earth, the Blue Earth, the Minnesota and the Mississippi: about 2,060 river miles.
Lake on the way: Lake Pepin.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Lakota; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Lakota has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 81° in July; winter nights fall to about 4° in January. A normal year brings about 40 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 33 inches of water.
On November 14 Lakota normally reaches 43° and falls to 23°. The record high is 80°, in 1999; the record low −10°, in 1959. The most rain on this date, 1.37 in, fell in 2010.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1954 at Swea City 5 N, 12 miles west-northwest. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
