The Cambridge 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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−11° on Nov. 16, 1955, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1911. Next is 1° in 1911.
Cambridge’s center stands about 2,660 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 2,620 ft to 3,660 ft, a difference of 1,040 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Cuddy Mountain, about 7,860 ft, 15 miles north-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Alluvial deposits (gravel, sand, silt), from the Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old.
The section below crosses 6 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 4×. 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, basaltic-andesite. Age: Early Miocene to Late Miocene, 6 to 18 million years old. About 9 mi of the line.
Basalt. Age: Middle Miocene to Late Pliocene, 3 to 15 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Mixed-clastic. Age: Early Miocene to Late Miocene, 8 to 17 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Gravel, sand, silt. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Gravel. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Quartz-diorite. Age: Late Jurassic to Late Cretaceous, 90 to 160 million years old. About 0.6 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 Cambridge reaches the Pacific Ocean by way of Rush Creek, the Weiser, the Snake and the Columbia: about 720 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Lake Umatilla, Brownlee Reservoir and Hells Canyon Reservoir.
240 miles of the trip are on the Snake.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Cambridge; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Cambridge has a dry-summer hot-summer continental climate. Summer afternoons average 92° in July; winter nights fall to about 18° in January. About 22 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Cambridge normally reaches 48° and falls to 27°. The record high is 65°, in 1934; the record low 6°, in 1985. The most rain on this date, 1.10 in, fell in 1952.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1911 at Council, 17 miles northeast, 280 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
