The Middleton 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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−13° on Nov. 15, 1955, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1906. Next is −2° in 2014.
Middleton’s center stands about 2,400 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 2,370 ft to 2,560 ft, a difference of 190 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Freezeout Hill, about 3,170 ft, 11 miles northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Sediments and sedimentary rocks (Pleistocene and Pliocene) (gravel, sand, silt), from the Pliocene to Pleistocene, less than 5.3 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 23×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Gravel, sand, silt. Age: Pliocene to Pleistocene, less than 5.3 million years old. About 9 mi of the line.
Mixed-clastic. Age: Early Miocene to Late Miocene, 8 to 17 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Gravel, sand, silt. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Coarse-detrital, fine-detrital. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 33,000 years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Mixed-clastic, volcanic. Age: Early Miocene to Pleistocene, 2 to 16 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Basalt. Age: Late Pliocene to Pleistocene, less than 3 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 Middleton reaches the Pacific Ocean by way of Mill Slough, the Boise, the Snake and the Columbia: about 740 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 Middleton; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Middleton has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 92° in July; winter nights fall to about 23° in January. A normal year brings about 7 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 13 inches of water.
On November 14 Middleton normally reaches 50° and falls to 29°. The record high is 70°, in 1953; the record low 7°, in 1916. The most rain on this date, 0.77 in, fell in 1965.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1906 at Emmett 2 E, 12 miles northeast. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
