The Trenton 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.
Partly cloudy
Partly cloudy
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Mostly cloudy
Chance of showers; cooler
Mostly cloudy
Chance of showers
75° on Nov. 12, 1999, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1956. Next is 68° in 2001.
Trenton’s center stands about 1,930 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,840 ft to 2,240 ft, a difference of 400 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Crow Fly High Hill, about 2,100 ft, 5 miles south-southeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Sentinel Butte Formation (siltstone, claystone, 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 35×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Siltstone, claystone, sandstone. Age: Paleocene, 56 to 66 million years old. About 15 mi of the line.
Claystone, siltstone. Age: Paleocene, 56 to 66 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Middle Paleocene to Late Paleocene, 56 to 62 million years old. About 3 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 Trenton reaches the Gulf of America by way of Sixmile Creek, the Missouri and the Mississippi: about 2,740 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Lake Oahe, Lake Sakakawea, Lake Sharpe and Lake Francis Case.
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 Trenton; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Trenton has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 85° in July; winter nights fall to about 4° in January. A normal year brings about 39 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 15 inches of water.
On November 14 Trenton normally reaches 40° and falls to 20°. The record high is 65°, in 2016; the record low −11°, in 1959. The most rain on this date, 0.20 in, fell in 1988.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1956 at Williston Experiment Farm, 7 miles northeast, 180 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
