The Clifton 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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3.23 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1901. The next wettest, 2.96 inches, fell in 1907.
Clifton’s center stands about 690 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 620 ft to 950 ft, a difference of 330 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Jenson Mountain, about 1,170 ft, 13 miles west.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Walnut Clay (limestone, shale), from the Early Cretaceous, 100 to 145 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 35×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Claystone. Age: Early Cretaceous, 100 to 145 million years old. About 11 mi of the line.
Limestone, shale. Age: Early Cretaceous, 100 to 145 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Limestone, marl. Age: Early Cretaceous, 100 to 145 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Fine-detrital, coarse-detrital. Age: Holocene, less than 12,000 years old. About 3 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.
A raindrop that lands in Clifton reaches the Gulf of America by way of the North Bosque, the South Bosque and the Brazos: about 460 river miles.
Lake on the way: Waco Lake.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Clifton; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Clifton has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 97° in July; winter nights fall to about 36° in January. About 36 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Clifton normally reaches 69° and falls to 46°. The record high is 91°, in 1989; the record low 21°, in 1940. The most rain on this date, 1.50 in, fell in 1954.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1901 from the Waco Area threaded record (Waco Regional Airport, 24 miles east-southeast, 190 ft lower). NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
