The Freeburg 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.
6.25 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1897. The next wettest, 3.02 inches, fell in 1992.
Freeburg’s center stands about 890 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 630 ft to 930 ft, a difference of 300 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Indian House Mounds, about 1,110 ft, 13 miles southeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Smithville Dolomite, Powell Dolomite, Cotter Dolomite, Jefferson City Dolomite (dolostone), from the Early Ordovician, 471 to 487 million years old.
The section below crosses 4 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 41×. 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. Age: Early Ordovician, 471 to 487 million years old. About 14 mi of the line.
Sandstone, chert. Age: Early Ordovician, 471 to 487 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Dolostone. Age: Early Ordovician, 471 to 487 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Shale, limestone, sandstone. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 0.8 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 Freeburg reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Gasconade, the Missouri and the Mississippi: about 1,330 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Freeburg; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Freeburg has a hot-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 88° in July; winter nights fall to about 22° in January. About 43 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Freeburg normally reaches 56° and falls to 36°. The record high is 78°, in 2025; the record low 11°, in 2018. The most rain on this date, 2.41 in, fell in 2020.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1897 at Vichy Rolla Natl Airport, 15 miles southeast, 220 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.