The Laketown 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.
−17° on Nov. 16, 1955, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1900. Next is −6° in 1916.
Laketown’s center stands about 5,980 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 5,920 ft to 7,270 ft, a difference of 1,350 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Bridger Peak, about 9,250 ft, 14 miles north-northwest.
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 7 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.
Conglomerate, mixed-clastic. Age: Late Cretaceous to Early Eocene, 48 to 100 million years old. About 14 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Dolostone. Age: Middle Cambrian to Early Ordovician, 471 to 521 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Coarse-detrital. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Limestone, dolostone. Age: Early Ordovician to Late Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 0.9 mi of the line.
Carbonate. Age: Early Mississippian to Middle Mississippian, 331 to 359 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 Laketown reaches Great Salt Lake by way of Big Creek and the Bear River: about 280 river miles. Great Salt Lake has no outlet to the sea: the water leaves only by evaporating or soaking into the ground.
Lakes on the way: Bear Lake and Mud Lake.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Laketown; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Laketown has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 81° in July; winter nights fall to about 14° in January. A normal year brings about 84 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 15 inches of water.
On November 14 Laketown normally reaches 43° and falls to 24°. The record high is 64°, in 1990; the record low 4°, in 1959. The most rain on this date, 0.90 in, fell in 1958.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1900 at Laketown, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.