The La Luz 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.
La Luz’s center stands about 4,720 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 4,450 ft to 5,930 ft, a difference of 1,480 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Cathey Peak, about 9,640 ft, 14 miles 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 6 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 4×. 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.
Shale, limestone, mixed-clastic. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Limestone, dolostone. Age: Permian, 260 to 290 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sandstone, carbonate, evaporite. Age: Permian, 273 to 290 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Permian, 284 to 299 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Shale, arkose. Age: Late Pennsylvanian to Permian, 295 to 304 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 Luz reaches the desert basins of the Rio Grande country by way of Red Arroyo: about 15 river miles. 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.
Often dry. About 100% of the way is mapped as streams that run only after rain or snowmelt; the water makes the whole trip in floods.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of La Luz; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
La Luz 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 La Luz 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., 19 miles southwest, 710 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
