The Joplin 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
Partly cloudy
Mostly cloudy
Showers likely; cooler
Partly cloudy
Mostly cloudy
Mostly cloudy
75° on Nov. 12, 1999, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1932. Next is 71° in 2025.
Joplin’s center stands about 3,310 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 3,250 ft to 3,410 ft, a difference of 160 ft: gently rolling country.
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 44×. 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 Joplin reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Marias, the Missouri and the Mississippi: about 3,300 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 Joplin; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Joplin has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 83° in July; winter nights fall to about 8° in January. A normal year brings about 35 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 11 inches of water.
On November 14 Joplin normally reaches 41° and falls to 19°. The record high is 68°, in 1999; the record low −18°, in 2014. The most rain on this date, 0.34 in, fell in 1958.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1932 at Joplin, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
