The Mud Lake 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.
66° on Nov. 11, 2016, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1948. Next is 65° in 1954.
Mud Lake’s center stands about 4,790 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 4,780 ft to 4,790 ft, a difference of 10 ft: nearly flat ground. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Table Butte, about 5,200 ft, 13 miles northeast.
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 3 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 56×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Fine-detrital. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old. About 10 mi of the line.
Basalt. Age: Late Pliocene to Pleistocene, less than 3 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Sand. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 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.
Mud Lake has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 89° in July; winter nights fall to about 7° in January. A normal year brings about 20 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 9 inches of water.
On November 14 Mud Lake normally reaches 45° and falls to 18°. The record high is 64°, in 1999; the record low −16°, in 1978. The most rain on this date, 0.28 in, fell in 1991.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1948 at Hamer 4 NW, 14 miles northeast. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.