The Fulton 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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5.08 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1889. The next wettest, 2.96 inches, fell in 1992.
Fulton’s center stands about 760 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 710 ft to 880 ft, a difference of 170 ft: gently rolling country.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Cherokee Group - Cabaniss Subgroup, Krebs Subgroup (shale, sandstone, siltstone), from the Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old.
The section below crosses 5 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 50×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Shale, sandstone, siltstone. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 10 mi of the line.
Dolostone. Age: Early Ordovician, 471 to 487 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Limestone, shale. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Limestone, sandstone. Age: Early Devonian to Late Devonian, 359 to 422 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Limestone. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million 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 Fulton reaches the Gulf of America by way of Stinson Creek, Auxvasse Creek, the Missouri and the Mississippi: about 1,310 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Fulton; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Fulton has a hot-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 89° in July; winter nights fall to about 22° in January. A normal year brings about 16 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 41 inches of water.
On November 14 Fulton normally reaches 55° and falls to 36°. The record high is 79°, in 2025; the record low 10°, in 1940. The most rain on this date, 1.68 in, fell in 1913.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1889 from the Columbia Area threaded record (Columbia Regional Airport, 15 miles west, 130 ft higher). NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
