The Richfield 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.
Mostly sunny
Partly cloudy
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Showers likely; cooler
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−20° on Nov. 16, 1955, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1910. Next is −7° in 1916.
Richfield’s center stands about 4,310 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 4,210 ft to 4,550 ft, a difference of 340 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Wedge Butte, about 5,540 ft, 15 miles north-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Basalt (Pleistocene and Pliocene), from the Late Pliocene to Pleistocene, less than 3 million years old.
The section below crosses 2 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 28×. 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. Age: Late Pliocene to Pleistocene, less than 3 million years old. About 24 mi of the line.
Fine-detrital. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old. About 0.3 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 Richfield reaches the Pacific Ocean by way of the Little Wood, the Malad, the Snake and the Columbia: about 950 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Lake Umatilla, Brownlee Reservoir, Cove Arm Lake 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 Richfield; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Richfield has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 89° in July; winter nights fall to about 14° in January. A normal year brings about 29 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 10 inches of water.
On November 14 Richfield normally reaches 46° and falls to 23°. The record high is 69°, in 1999; the record low 0°, in 1964. The most rain on this date, 1.00 in, fell in 2020.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1910 at Richfield, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
