The Apache 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.
92° on Nov. 15, 2025, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1912. Next is 86° in 2021.
Apache’s center stands about 1,290 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,230 ft to 1,390 ft, a difference of 160 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Mount Scott, about 2,450 ft, 14 miles southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows El Reno Group (shale, gypsum, dolostone), from the Permian, 252 to 299 million years old.
The section below crosses 11 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 27×. 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. Age: Permian, 252 to 299 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Shale, siltstone, sandstone. Age: Permian, 252 to 299 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Permian, 252 to 299 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Limestone, dolostone, sandstone. Age: Early Ordovician, 471 to 487 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Gypsum, dolostone. Age: Permian, 252 to 299 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Fine-detrital. Age: Holocene, less than 12,000 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. 5 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 Apache reaches the Gulf of America by way of East Cache Creek, Cache Creek, the Red River, the Atchafalaya and the Lower Atchafalaya: about 1,120 river miles.
Lake on the way: Lake Ellsworth.
880 miles of the trip are on the Red River.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Apache; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Apache has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 97° in July; winter nights fall to about 27° in January. About 28 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Apache normally reaches 65° and falls to 39°. The record high is 86°, in 2025; the record low 12°, in 1916. The most rain on this date, 1.31 in, fell in 1923.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1912 from the Lawton Area threaded record (Lawton Municipal Airport, 23 miles south, 220 ft lower). NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.