The Driscoll 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.
−17° on Nov. 16, 1955, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1943. Next is −17° in 1959.
Driscoll’s center stands about 1,870 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,810 ft to 1,930 ft, a difference of 120 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Sibley Butte, about 2,120 ft, 13 miles northwest.
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 4 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 54×. 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 14 mi of the line.
Shale, sandstone. Age: Late Cretaceous, 66 to 100 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Shale, sandstone. Age: Paleocene, 56 to 66 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Late Cretaceous, 66 to 100 million years old. About 0.8 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.
Driscoll has a cold desert climate. Summer afternoons average 84° in July; winter nights fall to about 2° in January. Barely 0.0 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Driscoll normally reaches 41° and falls to 21°. The record high is 69°, in 1953; the record low −8°, in 1955. The most rain on this date, 0.70 in, fell in 1944.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1943 at Moffit 3 SE, 13 miles south-southwest, 130 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.