The Duluth 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.
Partly cloudy
Mostly sunny; warmer
Partly cloudy
Partly cloudy
Chance of showers
Partly cloudy
Showers likely
68° on Nov. 17, 1953, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1871. Next is 67° in 1999.
Duluth’s center stands about 710 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 590 ft to 1,400 ft, a difference of 810 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Bardon Peak, about 1,260 ft, 9 miles southwest.
The section below crosses 9 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 21×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Anorthosite. Age: Mesoproterozoic, 1 to 1.2 billion years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Age: Mesoproterozoic, 1 to 1.2 billion years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Gabbro, troctolite. Age: Mesoproterozoic, 1 to 1.2 billion years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Arkose. Age: Mesoproterozoic, 1 to 1.6 billion years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Age: Mesoproterozoic, 1 to 1.2 billion years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Monzodiorite. Age: Mesoproterozoic, 1 to 1.2 billion years old. About 1 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 3 smaller units 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.
Rain that falls on Duluth runs straight into Lake Superior. 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 Duluth; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Duluth has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 76° in July; winter nights fall to about 6° in January. A normal year brings about 56 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 31 inches of water.
On November 14 Duluth normally reaches 40° and falls to 26°. The record high is 67°, in 1953; the record low −2°, in 1919. The most rain on this date, 1.36 in, fell in 1909.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1909 at Superior, 4 miles south-southeast, 100 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
