The Rocky Boy West 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
Chance of showers
Mostly cloudy
Chance of showers
77° on Nov. 12, 1999, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1921. Next is 73° in 2025.
Rocky Boy West’s center stands about 2,770 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 2,640 ft to 3,050 ft, a difference of 410 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Bailey Peak, about 6,040 ft, 14 miles east-southeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Judith River Formation (sandstone, shale), from the Late Cretaceous, 72 to 84 million years old.
The section below crosses 7 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 7×. 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 13 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Late Cretaceous, 72 to 84 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Sandstone, shale, siltstone. Age: Paleocene to Middle Paleocene, 59 to 66 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Phonolite. Age: Tertiary, 2.6 to 66 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Mafic-volcanic. Age: Tertiary, 2.6 to 66 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Late Cretaceous, 72 to 84 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 1 smaller unit 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 Rocky Boy West reaches the Gulf of America by way of Boxelder Creek, Big Sandy Creek, the Milk River, the Missouri and the Mississippi: about 3,400 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 Rocky Boy West; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Rocky Boy West has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 86° in July; winter nights fall to about 10° in January. About 13 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Rocky Boy West normally reaches 44° and falls to 22°. The record high is 72°, in 1999; the record low −22°, in 2014. The most rain on this date, 0.39 in, fell in 1927.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1921 at Big Sandy, 12 miles south-southwest. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
