The Vernon 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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−2° on Nov. 12, 2012, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1953. Next is −1° in 1964.
Vernon’s center stands about 5,520 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 5,350 ft to 5,910 ft, a difference of 560 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Black Crook Peak, about 9,170 ft, 9 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 7 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 5×. 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 9 mi of the line.
Mixed-clastic, coarse-detrital. Age: Middle Miocene to Late Pliocene, 2.6 to 16 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Conglomerate, metamorphic. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Granodiorite. Age: Late Eocene to Early Miocene, 16 to 38 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Clay. Age: Pleistocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Limestone, shale. Age: Middle Cambrian, 497 to 521 million years old. About 0.7 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 Vernon reaches the Great Basin by way of Faust Creek: about 25 river miles. The Great Basin has no outlet to the sea: the water leaves only by evaporating or soaking into the ground.
Often dry. About 80% of the way is mapped as streams that run only after rain or snowmelt; the water makes the whole trip in floods.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Vernon; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Vernon 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 36 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 11 inches of water.
On November 14 Vernon normally reaches 51° and falls to 20°. The record high is 73°, in 1999; the record low 2°, in 1994. The most rain on this date, 0.58 in, fell in 1987.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1953 at Vernon, 3 miles west. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
