The Merrill 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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−10° on Nov. 15, 1955, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1932. Next is −5° in 1985.
Merrill’s center stands about 4,070 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 4,060 ft to 4,470 ft, a difference of 410 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Stukel Mountain, about 6,480 ft, 5 miles north-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Lacustrine and fluvial sedimentary rocks (clay, silt, sand), from the Pleistocene, less than 2.6 million years old.
The section below crosses 9 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 11×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Basalt. Age: Miocene to Pliocene, 2.6 to 23 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Clay, silt, sand. Age: Pleistocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Andesite, basalt. Age: Late Pliocene to Pleistocene, less than 3.6 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Coarse-detrital. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Sandstone, conglomerate. Age: Miocene to Pleistocene, less than 23 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone, mudstone. Age: Miocene to Pliocene, 2.6 to 23 million 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. 3 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 Merrill reaches the Pacific Ocean by way of the Klamath: about 270 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Merrill; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Merrill has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 86° in July; winter nights fall to about 20° in December. A normal year brings about 23 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 11 inches of water.
On November 14 Merrill normally reaches 50° and falls to 25°. The record high is 67°, in 1995; the record low 1°, in 1985. The most rain on this date, 0.31 in, fell in 1990.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1932 at Tulelake, 8 miles southeast. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
