The La Cienega 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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72° on Nov. 14, 1999, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1941. Next is 72° in 2016.
La Cienega’s center stands about 5,940 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 5,850 ft to 6,370 ft, a difference of 520 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Sun Mountain, about 7,920 ft, 14 miles east-northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Alluvium (unconsolidated), from the Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 0.1 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 11×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Conglomerate-sandstone, coarse-detrital, fine-detrital. Age: Late Miocene to Pleistocene, 0.1 to 7.2 million years old. About 12 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 0.1 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Basalt, andesite. Age: Pliocene, 2.6 to 5.3 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Conglomerate, sandstone, shale. Age: Tertiary Paleogene, 23 to 66 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.
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 La Cienega reaches the Gulf of America by way of Cienega Creek, the Santa Fe and the Rio Grande: about 1,610 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 La Cienega; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
La Cienega has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 88° in July; winter nights fall to about 19° in December. About 11 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 La Cienega normally reaches 54° and falls to 27°. The record high is 72°, in 1999; the record low 16°, in 1997. The most rain on this date, 0.08 in, fell in 2009.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1941 at Santa Fe County Municipal Airport, 4 miles north-northeast, 350 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
