The Red River 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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−17° on Nov. 17, 2014, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1929. Next is −15° in 1951.
Red River’s center stands about 8,670 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 8,580 ft to 10,880 ft, a difference of 2,300 ft: mountain country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Wheeler Peak, about 13,120 ft, 10 miles south.
The section below crosses 11 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.
Andesite, basaltic-andesite, basalt. Age: Early Oligocene to Late Oligocene, 26 to 29 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Granitic, syenitic. Age: Eocene to Pliocene, 2.6 to 56 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Granodiorite, diorite, gabbro. Age: Paleoproterozoic, 1.7 to 1.8 billion years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Metavolcanic, metaclastic, gneiss. Age: Paleoproterozoic, 1.6 to 1.8 billion years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Rhyolite. Age: Early Oligocene to Late Oligocene, 24 to 29 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Conglomerate-sandstone, coarse-detrital, fine-detrital. Age: Late Oligocene to Late Miocene, 5.3 to 28 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 5 smaller units 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.
A raindrop that lands in Red River reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Red River and the Rio Grande: about 1,710 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 Red River; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Red River has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 79° in July; winter nights fall to about 5° in January. About 17 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Red River normally reaches 49° and falls to 16°. The record high is 69°, in 1999; the record low −10°, in 1940. The most rain on this date, 0.24 in, fell in 2022.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1929 at Eagle Nest, 13 miles southeast, 390 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
