The Joseph 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.
Partly cloudy
Partly cloudy; warmer
Mostly cloudy
Showers likely; cooler
Partly cloudy
Showers likely
Showers likely
79° on Nov. 16, 2016, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1988. Next is 75° in 2021.
Joseph’s center stands about 5,450 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 5,380 ft to 7,240 ft, a difference of 1,860 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Signal Peak, about 11,280 ft, 15 miles southwest.
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 4 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 3×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Felsic-volcanic. Age: Late Oligocene to Middle Miocene, 12 to 28 million years old. About 14 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Conglomerate-sandstone. Age: Miocene to Pliocene, 2.6 to 23 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated. Age: Pleistocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 0.4 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 Joseph reaches Sevier Lake by way of the Sevier: about 260 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 Joseph; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Joseph has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 90° in July; winter nights fall to about 12° in January. A normal year brings about 45 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 12 inches of water.
On November 14 Joseph normally reaches 53° and falls to 20°. The record high is 70°, in 1990; the record low 2°, in 2000. The most rain on this date, 0.14 in, fell in 2010.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1988 at Fremont Indian S.P., 7 miles west-southwest, 470 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
