The Fort Hall 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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−17° on Nov. 16, 1955, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1914. Next is −12° in 1916.
Fort Hall’s center stands about 4,440 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 4,410 ft to 4,650 ft, a difference of 240 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Mount Putnam, about 8,770 ft, 15 miles east-southeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Windblown sand deposits, from the Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old.
The section below crosses 8 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 10×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Mixed-clastic, volcanic. Age: Early Miocene to Pleistocene, 2 to 16 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Gravel, sand, silt. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Sand. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Fine-detrital. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Silt. Age: Pleistocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Basalt. Age: Late Pliocene to Pleistocene, less than 3 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. 2 smaller units along the line are not listed.
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 Fort Hall reaches the Pacific Ocean by way of the Ross Fork, the Snake and the Columbia: about 1,060 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 Fort Hall; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Fort Hall has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 86° in July; winter nights fall to about 15° in January. A normal year brings about 28 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 10 inches of water.
On November 14 Fort Hall normally reaches 46° and falls to 23°. The record high is 68°, in 1934; the record low −2°, in 1916. The most rain on this date, 0.94 in, fell in 1988.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1914 at Fort Hall 1 NNE, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
