The Putnam 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.
Chance of showers
Showers likely
Mostly cloudy
Mostly sunny; warmer
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89° on Nov. 16, 2025, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1911. Next is 87° in 2005.
Putnam’s center stands about 1,610 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,500 ft to 1,750 ft, a difference of 250 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is West Caddo Peak, about 2,060 ft, 14 miles south-southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Santa Anna Branch Shale (siltstone-mudstone), from the Permian, 252 to 299 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 28×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Siltstone-mudstone. Age: Permian, 252 to 299 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Sandstone, claystone. Age: Early Cretaceous, 100 to 145 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Sandstone-mudstone. Age: Permian, 252 to 299 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Claystone. Age: Permian, 252 to 299 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Claystone. Age: Permian, 252 to 299 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Limestone. Age: Early Cretaceous, 100 to 113 million years old. About 0.5 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 Putnam reaches the Gulf of America by way of Live Oak Creek, Hubbard Creek, the Clear Fork and the Brazos: about 850 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Possum Kingdom Lake and Lake Granbury.
550 miles of the trip are on the Brazos.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Putnam; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Putnam has a humid subtropical climate. Summer afternoons average 96° in July; winter nights fall to about 32° in January. About 29 inches of rain fall in a normal year, with about 4 inches of snow.
On November 14 Putnam normally reaches 67° and falls to 42°. The record high is 85°, in 1989; the record low 18°, in 2013. The most rain on this date, 2.10 in, fell in 1954.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1911 at Putnam, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
