The Gildford Colony 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.
Partly cloudy
Partly cloudy; warmer
Mostly cloudy
Showers likely; cooler
Chance of showers
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Mostly cloudy
73° on Nov. 12, 1999, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1931. Next is 71° in 1990.
Gildford Colony’s center stands about 2,780 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 2,720 ft to 2,840 ft, a difference of 120 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Black Butte, about 3,000 ft, 10 miles west.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Judith River Formation (sandstone, shale), from the Late Cretaceous, 72 to 84 million years old.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 39×. 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: Late Cretaceous, 72 to 84 million years old. About 24 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 Gildford Colony reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Milk River, the Missouri and the Mississippi: about 3,390 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 Gildford Colony; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Gildford Colony has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 84° in July; winter nights fall to about 2° in January. A normal year brings about 31 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 11 inches of water.
On November 14 Gildford Colony normally reaches 40° and falls to 16°. The record high is 71°, in 1999; the record low −29°, in 2014. The most rain on this date, 0.51 in, fell in 1932.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1931 at Simpson 6 N - Wildhorse, 14 miles north-northeast. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
