The Duran 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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−7° on Nov. 17, 2014, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1929. Next is −7° in 2018.
Duran’s center stands about 6,280 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 6,140 ft to 6,960 ft, a difference of 820 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Duran Mesa, about 7,060 ft, 3 miles west.
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 7 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 15×. 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, carbonate, evaporite. Age: Permian, 273 to 290 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Sand. Age: Middle Miocene to Early Pliocene, 3.6 to 16 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Limestone, dolostone. Age: Permian, 260 to 290 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated. Age: Holocene, less than 12,000 years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Permian, 273 to 290 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 0.1 million years old. About 2 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.
Duran has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 88° in July; winter nights fall to about 18° in January. A normal year brings about 26 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 14 inches of water.
On November 14 Duran normally reaches 58° and falls to 26°. The record high is 73°, in 1967; the record low −3°, in 2018. The most rain on this date, 0.40 in, fell in 1993.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1929 at Pedernal 9 E, 11 miles north-northwest, 130 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
