The Kelso 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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3.59 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1960. The next wettest, 2.87 inches, fell in 2011.
Kelso’s center stands about 420 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 330 ft to 500 ft, a difference of 170 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Vick Hill, about 840 ft, 14 miles northeast.
The section below crosses 10 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 44×. 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, limestone. Age: Early Ordovician to Middle Ordovician, 459 to 487 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Clay, silt, sand. Age: Holocene, less than 12,000 years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Limestone. Age: Silurian to Early Devonian, 394 to 425 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Dolostone, limestone. Age: Silurian, 422 to 445 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Limestone. Age: Middle Ordovician, 459 to 471 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Dolostone, limestone, shale. Age: Middle Ordovician, 459 to 471 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. 4 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 Kelso reaches the Gulf of America by way of Ramsey Creek, the Castor River Diversion Channel and the Mississippi: about 1,030 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Kelso; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Kelso has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 89° in July; winter nights fall to about 26° in January. About 48 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Kelso normally reaches 57° and falls to 37°. The record high is 80°, in 1964; the record low 13°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 1.34 in, fell in 2011.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1960 at Cape Girardeau Faa Airport, 3 miles northwest. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
