The Valencia 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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−4° on Nov. 13, 2018, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1916. Next is −3° in 2014.
Valencia’s center stands about 7,360 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 7,040 ft to 8,280 ft, a difference of 1,240 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Tesuque Peak, about 12,010 ft, 14 miles north.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Permian and Pennsylvanian rocks, undivided (sandstone, limestone, dolostone), from the Carboniferous to Permian, 252 to 324 million years old.
The section below crosses 7 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 5×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Sandstone, mudstone, conglomerate. Age: Middle Triassic to Late Triassic, 202 to 247 million years old. About 10 mi of the line.
Pelitic-schist, muscovite-schist, quartzite. Age: Paleoproterozoic, 1.6 to 2.5 billion years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Sandstone, limestone, dolostone. Age: Carboniferous to Permian, 252 to 324 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Plutonic. Age: Paleoproterozoic to Mesoproterozoic, 1 to 2.5 billion years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Granitic, gneiss. Age: Paleoproterozoic, 1.6 to 1.7 billion years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Permian, 273 to 290 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. 1 smaller unit 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 Valencia reaches the Gulf of America by way of Galisteo Creek and the Rio Grande: about 1,640 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 Valencia; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Valencia has a oceanic climate. Summer afternoons average 85° in July; winter nights fall to about 18° in January. A normal year brings about 26 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 16 inches of water.
On November 14 Valencia normally reaches 55° and falls to 26°. The record high is 74°, in 1949; the record low 1°, in 1940. The most rain on this date, 0.80 in, fell in 1997.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1916 at Pecos National Monument, 6 miles east-southeast, 480 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
