The Selfridge 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.
−18° on Nov. 13, 2014, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1919. Next is −14° in 1955.
Selfridge’s center stands about 2,190 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 2,100 ft to 2,260 ft, a difference of 160 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Leaf-on Hill, about 2,440 ft, 14 miles west-southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Cannonball Formation (shale, sandstone), 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 31×. 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: Paleocene, 56 to 66 million years old. About 17 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone, claystone. Age: Late Cretaceous, 66 to 100 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Shale, sandstone. Age: Late Cretaceous, 66 to 100 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 Selfridge reaches the Gulf of America by way of Oak Creek, the Missouri and the Mississippi: about 2,440 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 Selfridge; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Selfridge has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 85° in July; winter nights fall to about 4° in January. A normal year brings about 35 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 20 inches of water.
On November 14 Selfridge normally reaches 42° and falls to 19°. The record high is 70°, in 1999; the record low −7°, in 1955. The most rain on this date, 0.50 in, fell in 2003.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1919 at Mc Laughlin 2 SW, 18 miles south-southeast, 140 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.