The Saunders Lake 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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7.34 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1902. The next wettest, 5.16 inches, fell in 1941.
Saunders Lake’s center stands about 220 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 0 ft to 660 ft, a difference of 660 ft: hilly country. Open water lies within three miles. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Dean Mountain, about 1,800 ft, 13 miles east-northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Terrace, pediment, and lag gravels (gravel, boulders, clay), from the Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 million years old.
The section below crosses 4 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 14×. 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. Age: Middle Eocene, 38 to 48 million years old. About 11 mi of the line.
Gravel, boulders, clay. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Sand. Age: Holocene, less than 12,000 years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Mudstone. Age: Middle Eocene to Late Eocene, 34 to 48 million years old. About 0.8 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.
Rain that falls on Saunders Lake runs straight into the Pacific Ocean.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Saunders Lake; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Saunders Lake has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate. Summer afternoons average 67° in August; winter nights fall to about 40° in December. About 59 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Saunders Lake normally reaches 57° and falls to 44°. The record high is 69°, in 1906; the record low 23°, in 1978. The most rain on this date, 2.16 in, fell in 1941.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1902 at North Bend Southwest Oregon Regional Airport, 8 miles south-southwest, 200 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
