The Fort Sumner 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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84° on Nov. 16, 2021, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1939. Next is 84° in 2025.
Fort Sumner’s center stands about 4,030 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 3,990 ft to 4,200 ft, a difference of 210 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Twin Mesa, about 4,630 ft, 9 miles northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Older alluvial deposits of upland plains and piedmont areas, and calcic soils and eolian cover sediments of High Plains region (unconsolidated), from the Pleistocene, 0.1 to 2.6 million years old.
The section below crosses 5 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 28×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Unconsolidated. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 13 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated. Age: Pleistocene, 0.1 to 2.6 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Sandstone, mudstone. Age: Late Triassic, 202 to 237 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 0.8 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 0.1 million years old. About 0.4 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 Fort Sumner reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Pecos and the Rio Grande: about 1,320 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Paz Ramirez Lake, Amistad Reservoir, Red Bluff Reservoir and Lake McMillan.
410 miles of the trip are on the Pecos.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Fort Sumner; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Fort Sumner has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 96° in July; winter nights fall to about 24° in January. A normal year brings about 10 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 14 inches of water.
On November 14 Fort Sumner normally reaches 65° and falls to 33°. The record high is 82°, in 2025; the record low 10°, in 1976. The most rain on this date, 0.53 in, fell in 2004.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1939 at Sumner Lake, 12 miles northwest, 280 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
