The Holloman AFB 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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83° on Nov. 12, 1973, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1939. Next is 82° in 1966.
Holloman AFB’s center stands about 4,070 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 4,020 ft to 4,140 ft, a difference of 120 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Mule Peak, about 8,100 ft, 13 miles east-southeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Piedmont alluvial deposits (unconsolidated), from the Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 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 8×. 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 14 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated, gypsum. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 0.8 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Shale, limestone, mixed-clastic. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated. Age: Holocene, less than 12,000 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.
Rain that falls on Holloman AFB runs only a short way, about 2 miles, to the desert basins of the Rio Grande country. The desert basins of the Rio Grande country has no outlet to the sea: the water leaves only by evaporating or soaking into the ground.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Holloman AFB; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Holloman AFB has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 97° in June; winter nights fall to about 22° in January. About 10 inches of rain fall in a normal year, with about 2 inches of snow.
On November 14 Holloman AFB normally reaches 67° and falls to 30°. The record high is 79°, in 2001; the record low 9°, in 1979. The most rain on this date, 0.47 in, fell in 1968.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1939 at White Sands Nat'L Mon., 6 miles southwest. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
