The Carlton 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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Mostly sunny; warmer
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Chance of showers
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Showers likely
67° on Nov. 13, 1999, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1911. Next is 66° in 1953.
Carlton’s center stands about 1,080 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 910 ft to 1,230 ft, a difference of 320 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Bardon Peak, about 1,260 ft, 9 miles east-northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Slate and graywacke (slate, graywacke), from the Paleoproterozoic, 1.6 to 2 billion 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 25×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Slate, graywacke. Age: Paleoproterozoic, 1.6 to 2 billion years old. About 17 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone. Age: Mesoproterozoic, 1 to 1.2 billion years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Arkose. Age: Mesoproterozoic, 1 to 1.6 billion 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 Carlton reaches Lake Superior by way of Otter Creek and the Saint Louis: about 18 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 Carlton; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Carlton has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 79° in July; winter nights fall to about 2° in January. A normal year brings about 71 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 33 inches of water.
On November 14 Carlton normally reaches 36° and falls to 23°. The record high is 63°, in 1953; the record low −8°, in 1959. The most rain on this date, 0.40 in, fell in 1951.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1911 at Cloquet, 6 miles west-northwest, 180 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
