The Leith 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
Chance of showers; cooler
Partly cloudy
Chance of showers
−20° on Nov. 13, 2014, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1948. Next is −18° in 2022.
Leith’s center stands about 2,350 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 2,250 ft to 2,450 ft, a difference of 200 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Beer Bum Hill, about 2,610 ft, 15 miles southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Bullion Creek Formation (claystone, siltstone), from the Paleocene, 56 to 66 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 41×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Claystone, siltstone. Age: Paleocene, 56 to 66 million years old. About 14 mi of the line.
Shale, sandstone. Age: Paleocene, 56 to 66 million years old. About 9 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone, claystone. 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 Leith reaches the Gulf of America by way of Antelope Creek, the Heart, the Missouri and the Mississippi: about 2,600 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 Leith; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Leith has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 85° in July; winter nights fall to about 5° in January. A normal year brings about 51 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 16 inches of water.
On November 14 Leith normally reaches 42° and falls to 20°. The record high is 69°, in 2025; the record low −6°, in 2014. The most rain on this date, 0.16 in, fell in 1995.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1948 at Pretty Rock, 16 miles southwest, 130 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
