The Dakota 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.
Partly cloudy
Mostly sunny; warmer
Mostly sunny
Partly cloudy
Partly cloudy
Mostly sunny
Showers likely
78° on Nov. 13, 1999, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1889. Next is 77° in 1971.
Dakota City’s center stands about 1,100 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,060 ft to 1,110 ft, a difference of 50 ft: nearly flat ground. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Mount Lucia, about 1,400 ft, 9 miles north-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Dakota Group (sandstone, shale), from the Early Cretaceous, 100 to 145 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 51×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Sandstone, shale. Age: Early Cretaceous, 100 to 145 million years old. About 14 mi of the line.
Sandstone, shale. Age: Early Cretaceous to Late Cretaceous, 94 to 113 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Shale, limestone. Age: Late Cretaceous, 66 to 100 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Late Cretaceous, 90 to 100 million years old. About 0.3 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 Dakota City reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Missouri and the Mississippi: about 1,880 river miles.
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 Dakota City; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Dakota City has a hot-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 85° in July; winter nights fall to about 10° in January. A normal year brings about 36 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 29 inches of water.
On November 14 Dakota City normally reaches 48° and falls to 26°. The record high is 76°, in 2025; the record low −9°, in 1959. The most rain on this date, 1.08 in, fell in 1926.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1889 from the Sioux City Area threaded record (Sioux City Airport, 3 miles southeast). NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
