The Cuba 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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75° on Nov. 11, 1999, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1938. Next is 72° in 1953.
Cuba’s center stands about 6,910 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 6,810 ft to 7,530 ft, a difference of 720 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Cerro Jarocito, about 9,910 ft, 13 miles east.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Nacimiento Formation (sandstone, shale, conglomerate), from the Paleocene, 56 to 66 million years old.
The section below crosses 7 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 5×. 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, conglomerate. Age: Paleocene, 56 to 66 million years old. About 9 mi of the line.
Conglomerate-sandstone, shale. Age: Paleocene, 56 to 66 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Granodiorite, diorite, gabbro. Age: Paleoproterozoic, 1.7 to 1.8 billion years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Granitic, gneiss. Age: Paleoproterozoic, 1.6 to 1.7 billion years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Sandstone, shale. Age: Late Cretaceous, 72 to 84 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Late Cretaceous, 72 to 84 million years old. About 0.7 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 1 smaller unit along the line are not listed.
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 Cuba reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Rito Leche, the Rio Puerco and the Rio Grande: about 1,690 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Paz Ramirez Lake, Amistad Reservoir, Elephant Butte Reservoir and Caballo Reservoir.
760 miles of the trip are on the Rio Grande.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Cuba; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Cuba has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 87° in July; winter nights fall to about 14° in January. A normal year brings about 34 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 13 inches of water.
On November 14 Cuba normally reaches 54° and falls to 23°. The record high is 72°, in 1999; the record low 3°, in 2000. The most rain on this date, 0.43 in, fell in 1968.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1938 at Cuba, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
