The Aberdeen 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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69° on Nov. 13, 1999, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1914. Next is 68° in 1954.
Aberdeen’s center stands about 4,400 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 4,340 ft to 4,460 ft, a difference of 120 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Flat Top, about 5,130 ft, 12 miles west-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Fluvial and lake sediment (fine-detrital), from the Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old.
The section below crosses 5 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 25×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Basalt. Age: Late Pliocene to Pleistocene, less than 3 million years old. About 10 mi of the line.
Fine-detrital. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Coarse-detrital, fine-detrital. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 33,000 years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Gravel, sand, silt. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Gravel. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old. About 0.3 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 Aberdeen reaches the Pacific Ocean by way of American Falls Reservoir, the Snake and the Columbia: about 1,050 river miles.
Lakes on the way: American Falls Reservoir, Lake Umatilla, Brownlee Reservoir and Cove Arm Lake.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Aberdeen; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Aberdeen has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 87° in July; winter nights fall to about 14° in January. A normal year brings about 25 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 10 inches of water.
On November 14 Aberdeen normally reaches 46° and falls to 22°. The record high is 65°, in 2025; the record low −5°, in 1916. The most rain on this date, 0.70 in, fell in 2020.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1914 at Aberdeen Experiment Station, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
