The Dunseith 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.
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−20° on Nov. 11, 1986, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1945. Next is −18° in 1959.
Dunseith’s center stands about 1,700 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,620 ft to 2,010 ft, a difference of 390 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Butte Saint Paul, about 2,280 ft, 7 miles west-northwest.
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 4 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 24×. 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 11 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Late Cretaceous, 66 to 100 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone, claystone. Age: Late Cretaceous, 66 to 100 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Shale, sandstone. Age: Paleocene, 56 to 66 million years old. About 2 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 Dunseith reaches Hudson Bay by way of Willow Creek, the Souris, the Assiniboine, the Red River of the North and the Nelson: about 1,110 river miles. Past the border it runs north through Canada to Hudson Bay.
Lake on the way: Lake Winnipeg.
400 miles of the trip are on the Nelson.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Dunseith; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Dunseith has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 79° in July; winter nights fall to about −5° in January. About 20 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Dunseith normally reaches 36° and falls to 16°. The record high is 63°, in 1953; the record low −18°, in 1959. The most rain on this date, 0.12 in, fell in 1960.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1945 at Belcourt Keya Radio, 14 miles east, 260 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
