The Warsaw 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.
3.19 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1980. The next wettest, 2.80 inches, fell in 1985.
Warsaw’s center stands about 710 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 650 ft to 860 ft, a difference of 210 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Buzzards Roost, about 900 ft, 14 miles west-southwest.
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 54×. 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 13 mi of the line.
Limestone. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Limestone, siltstone. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Shale, siltstone, mudstone. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 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.
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 Warsaw reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Osage, the Missouri and the Mississippi: about 1,470 river miles.
1,170 miles of the trip are on the Mississippi.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Warsaw; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Warsaw has a hot-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 90° in July; winter nights fall to about 22° in January. About 44 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Warsaw normally reaches 58° and falls to 36°. The record high is 83°, in 1999; the record low 9°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 1.70 in, fell in 1993.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1980 at Truman Dam & Reservoir, 2 miles northwest. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.