The Noel 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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4.17 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1898. The next wettest, 3.54 inches, fell in 2015.
Noel’s center stands about 930 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 800 ft to 1,160 ft, a difference of 360 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is High Point, about 1,330 ft, 15 miles east-northeast.
The section below crosses 7 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 35×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Limestone. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 9 mi of the line.
Limestone. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Limestone, siltstone. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Chert, limestone. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Limestone, sandstone. Age: Early Devonian to Late Devonian, 359 to 422 million years old. About 0.5 mi of the line.
Sandstone, shale, limestone. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 0.3 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 1 smaller unit 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 Noel reaches the Gulf of America by way of Butler Creek, the Elk River, the Neosho, the Arkansas and the Mississippi: about 1,140 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Murray Lake and Ozark Lake.
600 miles of the trip are on the Mississippi.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Noel; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Noel has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 93° in July; winter nights fall to about 29° in January. A normal year brings about 12 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 49 inches of water.
On November 14 Noel normally reaches 61° and falls to 40°. The record high is 78°, in 1999; the record low 7°, in 1940. The most rain on this date, 4.04 in, fell in 1993.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1898 at Gravette, 8 miles south-southeast, 330 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
