The Vermillion 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 sunny
Mostly sunny; warmer
Partly cloudy
Partly cloudy
Partly cloudy
Partly cloudy
Showers likely
72° on Nov. 13, 1999, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1943. Next is 72° in 2025.
Vermillion’s center stands about 840 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 820 ft to 960 ft, a difference of 140 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Dills Mound, about 1,070 ft, 13 miles northeast.
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 52×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Dolostone, sandstone. Age: Early Ordovician, 471 to 487 million years old. About 14 mi of the line.
Shale, limestone, sandstone. Age: Middle Ordovician to Late Ordovician, 445 to 471 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone, shale. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 497 million years old. About 4 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 Vermillion reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Vermillion, Vermillion Slough and the Mississippi: about 1,800 river miles.
Lake on the way: Lake Pepin.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Vermillion; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Vermillion has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 81° in July; winter nights fall to about 3° in January. About 34 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Vermillion normally reaches 42° and falls to 24°. The record high is 65°, in 1999; the record low −2°, in 1959. The most rain on this date, 1.01 in, fell in 1951.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1943 at Rosemount Research And Outreach Center, 7 miles west-northwest, 100 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
