The Bismarck 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; warmer
Partly cloudy
Partly cloudy
Mostly cloudy; cooler
Partly cloudy
Chance of showers
73° on Nov. 15, 1953, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1874. Next is 73° in 1999.
Bismarck’s center stands about 1,700 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,620 ft to 1,920 ft, a difference of 300 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Keever Butte, about 2,150 ft, 10 miles north-northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Hell Creek Formation (sandstone, siltstone, claystone), from the Late Cretaceous, 66 to 100 million years old.
The section below crosses 3 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 34×. 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, siltstone, claystone. Age: Late Cretaceous, 66 to 100 million years old. About 11 mi of the line.
Shale, sandstone. Age: Paleocene, 56 to 66 million years old. About 11 mi of the line.
Claystone, siltstone. Age: Paleocene, 56 to 66 million years old. About 3 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 Bismarck reaches the Gulf of America by way of Hay Creek, Apple Creek, the Missouri and the Mississippi: about 2,480 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Lake Oahe, Lake Sharpe, Lake Francis Case and Lewis and Clark Lake.
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 Bismarck; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Bismarck has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 85° in July; winter nights fall to about 2° in January. A normal year brings about 50 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 19 inches of water.
On November 14 Bismarck normally reaches 41° and falls to 20°. The record high is 73°, in 2025; the record low −19°, in 1940. The most rain on this date, 0.45 in, fell in 1875.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1874 from the Bismarck Area threaded record (Bismarck Municipal Airport, 2 miles southeast). NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
