The Provo 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.
Mostly cloudy
Sunny; warmer
Partly cloudy
Partly cloudy
Mostly sunny; cooler
Partly cloudy
Showers likely
−21° on Nov. 13, 2014, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1948. Next is −17° in 1986.
Provo’s center stands about 3,730 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 3,600 ft to 3,950 ft, a difference of 350 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Flint Hill, about 4,470 ft, 13 miles northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Carlile Shale, from the Late Cretaceous, 66 to 100 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 21×. 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, bentonite. Age: Late Cretaceous, 66 to 100 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Claystone, conglomerate, sandstone. Age: Early Cretaceous, 100 to 145 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Shale. Age: Late Cretaceous, 66 to 100 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Chalk, marlstone, shale. Age: Late Cretaceous, 66 to 100 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Shale, mudstone, marlstone. Age: Late Cretaceous, 66 to 100 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Coarse-detrital, fine-detrital. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 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 Provo reaches the Gulf of America by way of Coal Creek, Cottonwood Creek, the Cheyenne, the Missouri and the Mississippi: about 2,590 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Lake Oahe, Lake Sharpe, Lake Francis Case and Lewis and Clark Lake.
1,170 miles of the trip are on the Mississippi.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Provo; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Provo has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 89° in July; winter nights fall to about 4° in January. A normal year brings about 36 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 16 inches of water.
On November 14 Provo normally reaches 48° and falls to 15°. The record high is 71°, in 2023; the record low −21°, in 2014. The most rain on this date, 0.22 in, fell in 2013.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1948 at Edgemont, 8 miles north, 300 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
