The Arlington 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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71° on Nov. 15, 2001, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1893. Next is 70° in 1999.
Arlington’s center stands about 630 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 250 ft to 940 ft, a difference of 690 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Turner Butte, about 1,270 ft, 11 miles southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Wanapum Basalt, from the Middle Miocene, 12 to 16 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 9×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Sandstone, siltstone, mudstone. Age: Miocene to Pliocene, 2.6 to 23 million years old. About 9 mi of the line.
Silt. Age: Pleistocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Basalt. Age: Middle Miocene to Late Miocene, 5.3 to 16 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Conglomerate, volcanic. Age: Middle Miocene to Pliocene, 2.6 to 16 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Basalt. Age: Middle Miocene, 12 to 16 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Basalt. Age: Late Oligocene to Early Pliocene, 3.6 to 28 million years old. About 0.7 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 Arlington reaches the Pacific Ocean by way of the China Ditch and the Columbia: about 240 river miles.
Lake on the way: Lake Umatilla.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Arlington; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Arlington has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 90° in July; winter nights fall to about 30° in January. A normal year brings about 5 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 9 inches of water.
On November 14 Arlington normally reaches 51° and falls to 35°. The record high is 70°, in 1999; the record low 10°, in 1955. The most rain on this date, 0.76 in, fell in 1966.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1893 at Arlington, here, 350 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
