The Zalma 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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5.21 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1939. The next wettest, 3.58 inches, fell in 2011.
Zalma’s center stands about 410 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 360 ft to 640 ft, a difference of 280 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Big Rock, about 810 ft, 14 miles north-northwest.
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 3 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 42×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Sandstone, chert. Age: Early Ordovician, 471 to 487 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Dolostone. Age: Early Ordovician, 471 to 487 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Clay, silt, sand. Age: Holocene, less than 12,000 years old. About 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 Zalma reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Upper Castor, the Castor River Diversion Channel and the Mississippi: about 1,060 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Zalma; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Zalma has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 88° in July; winter nights fall to about 24° in January. About 51 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Zalma normally reaches 56° and falls to 37°. The record high is 83°, in 1955; the record low 11°, in 1940. The most rain on this date, 1.51 in, fell in 1957.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1939 at Wappapello Dam, 19 miles southwest. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
