The Sterling 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.
Showers likely
Showers likely; cooler
Chance of showers
Sunny
Chance of showers
Mostly cloudy
Chance of showers
92° on Nov. 15, 2025, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1912. Next is 86° in 2021.
Sterling’s center stands about 1,230 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,140 ft to 1,300 ft, a difference of 160 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Gyp Hill, about 1,430 ft, 7 miles east-northeast.
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 7 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 49×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Fine-detrital. Age: Holocene, less than 12,000 years old. About 9 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Permian, 252 to 299 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Gypsum, dolostone. Age: Permian, 252 to 299 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Shale, gypsum, dolostone. Age: Permian, 252 to 299 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Sandstone, conglomerate. Age: Permian, 252 to 299 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone. Age: Permian, 252 to 299 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. 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.
A raindrop that lands in Sterling reaches the Gulf of America by way of Beaver Creek, the Red River, the Atchafalaya and the Lower Atchafalaya: about 1,060 river miles.
840 miles of the trip are on the Red River.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Sterling; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Sterling 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 Sterling 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, 19 miles southwest, 160 ft lower). NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
