The Forsyth 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
−15° on Nov. 12, 2000, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1975. Next is −11° in 2022.
Forsyth’s center stands about 2,520 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 2,500 ft to 2,920 ft, a difference of 420 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Rosebud Buttes, about 3,310 ft, 15 miles east-southeast.
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 10 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 21×. 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. Age: Late Cretaceous, 66 to 84 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Late Cretaceous, 72 to 84 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 1.8 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Early Paleocene, 62 to 66 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Shale, sandstone, bentonite. Age: Early Paleocene, 62 to 66 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Gravel, sand, silt. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 1.8 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. 4 smaller units 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 Forsyth reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Yellowstone, the Missouri and the Mississippi: about 2,980 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 Forsyth; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Forsyth has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 88° in July; winter nights fall to about 10° in January. A normal year brings about 35 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 16 inches of water.
On November 14 Forsyth normally reaches 47° and falls to 22°. The record high is 75°, in 1999; the record low −8°, in 2014. The most rain on this date, 0.15 in, fell in 2022.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1975 at Forsyth, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
