The Richmond 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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−20° on Nov. 16, 1955, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1911. Next is −6° in 1978.
Richmond’s center stands about 4,650 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 4,430 ft to 6,490 ft, a difference of 2,060 ft: mountain country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Naomi Peak, about 9,920 ft, 7 miles east.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Lake Bonneville deposits (clay), from the Pleistocene, less than 2.6 million years old.
The section below crosses 10 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 4×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Clay. Age: Pleistocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated. Age: Pleistocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Mudstone, unconsolidated. Age: Middle Miocene to Late Pliocene, 2.6 to 16 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Limestone. Age: Early Ordovician to Late Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Dolostone. Age: Silurian, 422 to 445 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. 4 smaller units 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 Richmond reaches Great Salt Lake by way of the Cub and the Bear River: about 90 river miles. Great Salt 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 Richmond; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Richmond has a dry-summer hot-summer continental climate. Summer afternoons average 89° in July; winter nights fall to about 17° in January. A normal year brings about 62 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 20 inches of water.
On November 14 Richmond normally reaches 46° and falls to 27°. The record high is 68°, in 1990; the record low 3°, in 1978. The most rain on this date, 1.36 in, fell in 1958.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1911 at Richmond, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
