The Watford City 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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76° on Nov. 12, 1999, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1950. Next is 70° in 1981.
Watford City’s center stands about 2,130 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 2,030 ft to 2,240 ft, a difference of 210 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Morman Butte, about 2,540 ft, 14 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.
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.
Siltstone, claystone, sandstone. Age: Paleocene, 56 to 66 million years old. About 24 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 Watford City reaches the Gulf of America by way of Cherry Creek, the Little Missouri, the Missouri and the Mississippi: about 2,680 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 Watford City; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Watford City has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 83° 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 18 inches of water.
On November 14 Watford City normally reaches 39° and falls to 20°. The record high is 67°, in 2025; the record low −11°, in 2014. The most rain on this date, 0.59 in, fell in 1964.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1950 at Keene 3 S, 18 miles east-northeast, 340 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
