The Sterling 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
73° on Nov. 12, 1928, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1893. Next is 71° in 1967.
Sterling’s center stands about 5,570 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 5,290 ft to 7,750 ft, a difference of 2,460 ft: mountain country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Heliotrope Mountain, about 11,120 ft, 14 miles east-southeast.
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 9 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.
Unconsolidated. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated. Age: Pleistocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Shale, marlstone. Age: Early Eocene to Late Eocene, 34 to 56 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Limestone, mixed-clastic. Age: Late Paleocene to Early Eocene, 48 to 59 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Limestone. Age: Late Paleocene to Early Eocene, 48 to 59 million years old. About 0.7 mi of the line.
Conglomerate. Age: Late Jurassic, 145 to 164 million years old. About 0.6 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 3 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 Sterling reaches Sevier Lake by way of the San Pitch and the Sevier: about 200 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 Sterling; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Sterling has a hot-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 87° in July; winter nights fall to about 18° in December. A normal year brings about 53 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 13 inches of water.
On November 14 Sterling normally reaches 51° and falls to 27°. The record high is 71°, in 1967; the record low 0°, in 1916. The most rain on this date, 0.55 in, fell in 1988.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1893 at Manti, 6 miles northeast, 170 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
