The Dawson 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.
Sunny
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny
Mostly cloudy
Chance of showers
Partly cloudy; cooler
Showers likely
71° on Nov. 14, 2025, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1987. Next is 69° in 2001.
Dawson’s center stands about 1,750 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,720 ft to 1,780 ft, a difference of 60 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is McPhail Butte, about 1,920 ft, 9 miles northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Pierre Formation (shale), 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 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.
Shale, sandstone. Age: Late Cretaceous, 66 to 100 million years old. About 10 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Late Cretaceous, 66 to 100 million years old. About 9 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone, claystone. Age: Late Cretaceous, 66 to 100 million years old. About 6 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.
Dawson has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 80° in July; winter nights fall to about 1° in January. A normal year brings about 49 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 20 inches of water.
On November 14 Dawson normally reaches 39° and falls to 20°. The record high is 71°, in 2025; the record low −5°, in 2014. The most rain on this date, 0.15 in, fell in 1997.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1987 at Streeter 5 NW, 18 miles southeast, 210 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
