The Dowell 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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8.33 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1893. The next wettest, 4.05 inches, fell in 1921.
Dowell’s center stands about 400 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 380 ft to 470 ft, a difference of 90 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Grammer Hill, about 590 ft, 14 miles east-northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Shelburn-Patoka Formations undivided (shale, limestone), from the Late Pennsylvanian, 304 to 307 million years old.
The section below crosses 4 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 64×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Shale, limestone. Age: Late Pennsylvanian, 304 to 307 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Shale, sandstone. Age: Early Pennsylvanian to Middle Pennsylvanian, 307 to 324 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Shale, sandstone, limestone. Age: Late Pennsylvanian, 304 to 307 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Shale, sandstone, coal. Age: Middle Pennsylvanian to Late Pennsylvanian, 304 to 315 million years old. About 4 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 Dowell reaches the Gulf of America by way of Grannys Branch, the Little Muddy, the Big Muddy and the Mississippi: about 1,120 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Dowell; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Dowell has a hot-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 87° in July; winter nights fall to about 24° in January. A normal year brings about 12 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 48 inches of water.
On November 14 Dowell normally reaches 56° and falls to 36°. The record high is 80°, in 1955; the record low 10°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 6.70 in, fell in 1993.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1893 at Du Quoin 4 SE, 4 miles northeast. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
