The Choteau 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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−30° on Nov. 13, 1955, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1893. Next is −28° in 1959.
Choteau’s center stands about 3,820 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 3,740 ft to 4,050 ft, a difference of 310 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Teton Buttes, about 4,810 ft, 9 miles west.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Alluvium (gravel, sand, silt), from the Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 1.8 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 18×. 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, limestone, dolostone. Age: Late Cretaceous, 84 to 90 million years old. About 11 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone, mudstone. Age: Late Cretaceous, 66 to 84 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone, shale. Age: Late Cretaceous, 72 to 87 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Gravel, sand, silt. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 1.8 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 1.8 million years old. About 0.4 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 Choteau reaches the Gulf of America by way of Spring Creek, the Teton, the Marias, the Missouri and the Mississippi: about 3,360 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Lake Oahe, Lake Sakakawea, Lake Fort Peck and Lake Sharpe.
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 Choteau; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Choteau has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 82° in July; winter nights fall to about 14° in January. A normal year brings about 48 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 12 inches of water.
On November 14 Choteau normally reaches 45° and falls to 22°. The record high is 73°, in 1999; the record low −17°, in 2014. The most rain on this date, 0.40 in, fell in 1897.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1893 at Choteau, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
