The Fayette 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
Partly cloudy; warmer
Mostly cloudy
Showers likely
Partly cloudy
Showers likely
Showers likely
74° on Nov. 16, 1999, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1895. Next is 71° in 1908.
Fayette’s center stands about 5,060 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 5,010 ft to 6,150 ft, a difference of 1,140 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Big Baldy, about 8,750 ft, 13 miles north-northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Alluvium and colluvium (unconsolidated), from the Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old.
The section below crosses 5 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 6×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Unconsolidated. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old. About 11 mi of the line.
Limestone. Age: Late Paleocene to Early Eocene, 48 to 59 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated. Age: Pliocene to Pleistocene, less than 5.3 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Sandstone, mudstone. Age: Late Cretaceous, 72 to 84 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Shale, marlstone. Age: Early Eocene to Late Eocene, 34 to 56 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.
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 Fayette reaches Sevier Lake by way of the San Pitch and the Sevier: about 190 river miles. Sevier Lake has no outlet to the sea: the water leaves only by evaporating or soaking into the ground.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Fayette; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Fayette has a hot-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 91° in July; winter nights fall to about 16° in January. A normal year brings about 30 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 13 inches of water.
On November 14 Fayette normally reaches 51° and falls to 25°. The record high is 70°, in 1999; the record low −3°, in 1959. The most rain on this date, 0.62 in, fell in 1988.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1895 at Scipio, 14 miles west, 250 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
