The Sacramento 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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75° on Nov. 14, 1967, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1894. Next is 73° in 1981.
Sacramento’s center stands about 7,310 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 7,050 ft to 8,230 ft, a difference of 1,180 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Cathey Peak, about 9,640 ft, 14 miles west.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Yeso Formation (sandstone, carbonate, evaporite), from the Permian, 273 to 290 million years old.
The section below crosses 2 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 6×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Limestone, dolostone. Age: Permian, 260 to 290 million years old. About 15 mi of the line.
Sandstone, carbonate, evaporite. Age: Permian, 273 to 290 million years old. About 9 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 Sacramento reaches the Gulf of America by way of Agua Chiquita Creek, the Rio Peñasco, the Pecos and the Rio Grande: about 1,230 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 Sacramento; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Sacramento has a oceanic climate. Summer afternoons average 82° in June; winter nights fall to about 26° in January. A normal year brings about 17 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 19 inches of water.
On November 14 Sacramento normally reaches 56° and falls to 33°. The record high is 75°, in 1967; the record low 11°, in 1915. The most rain on this date, 1.50 in, fell in 1968.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1894 at Mountain Park, 19 miles northwest, 500 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
