The Virginia City 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
69° on Nov. 17, 1995, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1887. Next is 67° in 1990.
Virginia City’s center stands about 6,120 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 5,120 ft to 7,610 ft, a difference of 2,490 ft: mountain country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Mount Rose, about 10,740 ft, 15 miles west.
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 8 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.
Andesite, dacite. Age: Miocene, 5.3 to 23 million years old. About 9 mi of the line.
Coarse-detrital, fine-detrital. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Coarse-detrital, fine-detrital. Age: Pliocene to Pleistocene, less than 5.3 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Granitic, granodiorite, quartz-monzonite. Age: Jurassic to Miocene, 5.3 to 202 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Andesite, basalt. Age: Oligocene to Miocene, 5.3 to 34 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Age: Eocene to Miocene, 5.3 to 56 million years old. About 0.5 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 2 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 Virginia City reaches the Great Basin by way of Virginia Creek and the Carson: about 95 river miles. The Great Basin has no outlet to the sea: the water leaves only by evaporating or soaking into the ground.
Lake on the way: Lahontan Reservoir.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Virginia City; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Virginia City has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate. Summer afternoons average 84° in July; winter nights fall to about 26° in December. A normal year brings about 46 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 12 inches of water.
On November 14 Virginia City normally reaches 49° and falls to 33°. The record high is 65°, in 2016; the record low 14°, in 1978. The most rain on this date, 1.35 in, fell in 1981.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1887 at Virginia City, here, 220 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
