The Golden Valley 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.
Mostly sunny
Partly cloudy
Showers likely; cooler
Sunny
Showers likely
Showers likely
Partly cloudy
73° on Nov. 14, 2016, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1996. Next is 71° in 1999.
Golden Valley’s center stands about 5,130 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 4,740 ft to 5,620 ft, a difference of 880 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Ladybug Peak, about 8,330 ft, 15 miles southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Older alluvium and alluvial fan deposits (coarse-detrital, fine-detrital), from the Pliocene to Pleistocene, less than 5.3 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.
Coarse-detrital, fine-detrital. Age: Pliocene to Pleistocene, less than 5.3 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Granitic, granodiorite, quartz-monzonite. Age: Jurassic to Miocene, 5.3 to 202 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Metaandesite, metadacite, metarhyolite. Age: Triassic to Jurassic, 145 to 252 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Gravel, sand. Age: Pliocene to Pleistocene, less than 5.3 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Andesite, dacite. Age: Miocene, 5.3 to 23 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Andesite, basalt. Age: Oligocene to Miocene, 5.3 to 34 million years old. About 3 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.
Golden Valley has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 93° in July; winter nights fall to about 27° in December. A normal year brings about 30 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 8 inches of water.
On November 14 Golden Valley normally reaches 55° and falls to 33°. The record high is 73°, in 2016; the record low 23°, in 2022. The most rain on this date, 0.08 in, fell in 2025.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1996 at Reno Wfo, 4 miles south-southeast, 140 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
