The Skelton 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
Partly cloudy; warmer
Partly cloudy
Partly cloudy
Chance of showers
Partly cloudy
Showers likely
68° on Nov. 13, 1999, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1961. Next is 67° in 2001.
Skelton’s center stands about 1,230 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,160 ft to 1,310 ft, a difference of 150 ft: gently rolling country.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Interlayered volcanic and sedimentary rocks (volcanic, sedimentary), from the Paleoproterozoic, 1.6 to 2.5 billion years old.
The section below crosses 8 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 58×. 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, siltstone. Age: Mesoproterozoic, 1 to 1.2 billion years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Graywacke, slate. Age: Paleoproterozoic, 1.6 to 2.5 billion years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Slate, graywacke. Age: Paleoproterozoic, 1.6 to 2 billion years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Schist, slate. Age: Paleoproterozoic, 1.6 to 2.5 billion years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Graywacke, slate. Age: Paleoproterozoic, 1.6 to 2.5 billion years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Siltstone, graywacke, slate. Age: Paleoproterozoic, 1.6 to 2.5 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. 2 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.
A raindrop that lands in Skelton reaches the Gulf of America by way of the West Fork Moose Horn, the Moose Horn, the Kettle, the Saint Croix and the Mississippi: about 1,950 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Lake Pepin and Lake Mallalieu 175.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Skelton; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Skelton has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 76° in July; winter nights fall to about −3° in January. A normal year brings about 59 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 31 inches of water.
On November 14 Skelton normally reaches 36° and falls to 19°. The record high is 60°, in 2016; the record low −1°, in 1965. The most rain on this date, 0.56 in, fell in 2010.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1961 at Wright 3 E, 13 miles northwest, 100 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
