The Parker 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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−16° on Nov. 16, 1955, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1895. Next is −12° in 2014.
Parker’s center stands about 4,930 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 4,850 ft to 4,970 ft, a difference of 120 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is West Butte, about 6,170 ft, 8 miles west-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 5 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 15×. 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: 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 6 mi of the line.
Sand. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Basalt. Age: Middle Miocene to Late Pliocene, 3 to 15 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Rhyolite. Age: Late Miocene to Late Pliocene, 3 to 6.6 million years old. About 0.9 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 Parker reaches the Pacific Ocean by way of the Henrys Fork, the Snake and the Columbia: about 1,180 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 Parker; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Parker has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 83° in July; winter nights fall to about 12° in January. About 15 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Parker normally reaches 42° and falls to 22°. The record high is 63°, in 1999; the record low −5°, in 1978. The most rain on this date, 0.56 in, fell in 1991.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1895 at Saint Anthony, 4 miles east. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
