The Deer Canyon 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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79° on Nov. 14, 2025, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1902. Next is 74° in 1906.
Deer Canyon’s center stands about 6,640 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 6,180 ft to 7,240 ft, a difference of 1,060 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Manzano Peak, about 10,050 ft, 15 miles northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Yeso Formation (sandstone, carbonate, evaporite), from the Permian, 273 to 290 million years old.
The section below crosses 6 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 12×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Limestone, dolostone. Age: Permian, 260 to 290 million years old. About 9 mi of the line.
Sandstone, carbonate, evaporite. Age: Permian, 273 to 290 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Permian, 284 to 299 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Sedimentary. Age: Permian, 252 to 299 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Permian, 273 to 290 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Shale, arkose. Age: Late Pennsylvanian to Permian, 295 to 304 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.
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 Deer Canyon reaches the Gulf of America by way of Abo Arroyo and the Rio Grande: about 1,540 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 Deer Canyon; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Deer Canyon has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 87° in June; winter nights fall to about 22° in December. A normal year brings about 14 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 13 inches of water.
On November 14 Deer Canyon normally reaches 57° and falls to 30°. The record high is 79°, in 2025; the record low 1°, in 1940. The most rain on this date, 0.49 in, fell in 1910.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1902 at Mountainair, 6 miles north, 120 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
