The Monticello 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.
74° on Nov. 11, 2020, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1898. Next is 70° in 1956.
Monticello’s center stands about 1,520 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,280 ft to 1,640 ft, a difference of 360 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Thunder Hill, about 2,240 ft, 14 miles north-northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Upper Walton Formation (shale, sandstone, conglomerate), from the Late Devonian, 359 to 384 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 17×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Shale, sandstone, conglomerate. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old. About 11 mi of the line.
Sandstone, conglomerate, shale. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Middle Devonian to Late Devonian, 359 to 394 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Shale, sandstone, conglomerate. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Shale, siltstone, sandstone. Age: Middle Devonian, 384 to 394 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.
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 Monticello reaches Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Kiamesha Creek, the Sheldrake Stream, the Neversink, Basher Kill and the Delaware: about 260 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Monticello; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Monticello has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 79° in July; winter nights fall to about 13° in January. A normal year brings about 70 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 53 inches of water.
On November 14 Monticello normally reaches 47° and falls to 29°. The record high is 66°, in 1964; the record low 6°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 1.60 in, fell in 1911.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1898 at Liberty 1 NE, 11 miles north-northwest. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.