The Selma 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; warmer
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny
Partly cloudy
Partly cloudy
Partly cloudy
72° on Nov. 11, 2022, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1909. Next is 67° in 1953.
Selma’s center stands about 1,380 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,280 ft to 1,580 ft, a difference of 300 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Briar Hill, about 1,740 ft, 10 miles west-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Michigan Formation (shale), from the Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old.
The section below crosses 3 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 32×. 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. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 17 mi of the line.
Sandstone, shale. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Limestone. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 2 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 Selma reaches Lake Michigan by way of Lake Mitchell, the Clam and the Muskegon: about 200 river miles. From there it moves on through the Great Lakes, over Niagara Falls and down the St. Lawrence to the Atlantic.
Lakes on the way: Muskegon Lake and Lake Mitchell.
150 miles of the trip are on the Muskegon.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Selma; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Selma has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 80° in July; winter nights fall to about 12° in January. About 35 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Selma normally reaches 44° and falls to 29°. The record high is 63°, in 1953; the record low 2°, in 1943. The most rain on this date, 0.88 in, fell in 1980.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1909 at Cadillac Wexford County Airport, 5 miles east. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
