The Mount Charleston 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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−1° on Nov. 14, 1994, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1949. Next is 1° in 1985.
Mount Charleston’s center stands about 7,530 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 6,900 ft to 11,240 ft, a difference of 4,340 ft: mountain country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Charleston Peak, about 11,880 ft, 3 miles west-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Carbonate Shelf Sequence - Dolomite, limestone, and shale (dolostone, limestone, shale), from the Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old.
The section below crosses 5 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 3×. 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, siltstone. Age: Carboniferous to Permian, 273 to 324 million years old. About 14 mi of the line.
Dolostone, limestone, shale. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Coarse-detrital, fine-detrital. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Limestone. Age: Carboniferous, 324 to 359 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Limestone, dolostone, shale. Age: Permian, 260 to 299 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.
Mount Charleston has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate. Summer afternoons average 79° in July; winter nights fall to about 21° in December. A normal year brings about 100 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 26 inches of water.
On November 14 Mount Charleston normally reaches 52° and falls to 27°. The record high is 69°, in 1995; the record low −1°, in 1994. The most rain on this date, 1.10 in, fell in 1988.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1949 at Mt. Charleston Fire Station, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
