The Norman 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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7° on Nov. 17, 1959, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1888. Next is 10° in 1911.
Norman’s center stands about 810 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 690 ft to 920 ft, a difference of 230 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Udell Hills, about 1,090 ft, 7 miles west.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Marshall Sandstone, from the Carboniferous, 324 to 359 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 29×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Sandstone. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 14 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 10 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 Norman reaches Lake Michigan by way of Pine Creek and the Manistee: about 30 river miles. From there it moves on through the Great Lakes, over Niagara Falls and down the St. Lawrence to the Atlantic.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Norman; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Norman has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 80° in July; winter nights fall to about 19° in January. About 36 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Norman normally reaches 47° and falls to 34°. The record high is 64°, in 1909; the record low 15°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 1.38 in, fell in 1957.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1888 at Manistee 3 SE, 17 miles west, 140 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
