The Luther 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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Showers likely
−5° on Nov. 12, 2019, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1964. Next is −4° in 1986.
Luther’s center stands about 1,100 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,030 ft to 1,130 ft, a difference of 100 ft: gently rolling country.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Lower Cherokee Group and Raccoon Creek Group (shale, sandstone, siltstone), from the Early Pennsylvanian to Middle Pennsylvanian, 307 to 324 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 61×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Shale, sandstone, siltstone. Age: Early Pennsylvanian to Middle Pennsylvanian, 307 to 324 million years old. About 19 mi of the line.
Shale, siltstone. Age: Middle Pennsylvanian, 307 to 315 million years old. About 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 Luther reaches the Gulf of America by way of Richardson Branch, the Des Moines and the Mississippi: about 1,570 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Roberts Creek and Big Creek Pounding Area.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Luther; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Luther has a hot-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 84° in July; winter nights fall to about 12° in January. A normal year brings about 33 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 36 inches of water.
On November 14 Luther normally reaches 48° and falls to 29°. The record high is 73°, in 2025; the record low 7°, in 2014. The most rain on this date, 0.31 in, fell in 2024.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1964 at Ames 8 WSW, 4 miles north-northeast. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
