The Spencer 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 cloudy
Mostly cloudy
Mostly cloudy
Showers likely
Chance of showers
Showers likely
Chance of showers
−15° on Nov. 16, 1955, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1925. Next is −8° in 1959.
Spencer’s center stands about 5,910 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 5,740 ft to 7,120 ft, a difference of 1,380 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Lookout Point, about 8,680 ft, 9 miles northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Sedimentary rocks (Paleocene and Cretaceous) (conglomerate, sandstone), from the Cretaceous to Paleocene, 56 to 145 million years old.
The section below crosses 7 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 6×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Rhyolite. Age: Late Miocene to Late Pliocene, 3 to 6.6 million years old. About 11 mi of the line.
Basalt. Age: Late Pliocene to Pleistocene, less than 3 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Sandstone, shale. Age: Cretaceous, 66 to 145 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Gravel. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old. About 0.9 mi of the line.
Gravel, sand, silt. Age: Pliocene to Pleistocene, less than 5.3 million years old. About 0.8 mi of the line.
Gravel, sand, silt. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old. About 0.5 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 1 smaller unit 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.
Spencer has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 87° in July; winter nights fall to about 15° in January. A normal year brings about 47 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 12 inches of water.
On November 14 Spencer normally reaches 42° and falls to 24°. The record high is 66°, in 1999; the record low −1°, in 1978. The most rain on this date, 0.33 in, fell in 1930.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1925 at Dubois Experiment Station, 8 miles south, 460 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
