The Colstrip 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.
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny
Partly cloudy
Chance of showers; cooler
Chance of showers; cooler
Mostly cloudy
Chance of showers
80° on Nov. 12, 1999, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1927. Next is 75° in 1990.
Colstrip’s center stands about 3,240 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 3,160 ft to 3,580 ft, a difference of 420 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Charlie Black Butte, about 4,280 ft, 14 miles south-southeast.
The section below crosses 2 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 15×. 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, shale. Age: Early Paleocene to Middle Paleocene, 59 to 66 million years old. About 23 mi of the line.
Shale, sandstone, bentonite. Age: Early Paleocene, 62 to 66 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.
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 Colstrip reaches the Gulf of America by way of East Fork Armells Creek, Armells Creek, the Yellowstone, the Missouri and the Mississippi: about 3,040 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Lake Oahe, Lake Sakakawea, Lake Sharpe and Lake Francis Case.
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 Colstrip; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Colstrip has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 85° in July; winter nights fall to about 14° in January. A normal year brings about 37 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 16 inches of water.
On November 14 Colstrip normally reaches 46° and falls to 24°. The record high is 74°, in 1999; the record low −17°, in 1959. The most rain on this date, 0.70 in, fell in 1964.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1927 at Colstrip, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
