The Virgin 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.
Mostly sunny
Partly cloudy
Partly cloudy
Showers likely; cooler
Partly cloudy
Showers likely
Chance of showers
82° on Nov. 15, 1999, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1950. Next is 80° in 1990.
Virgin’s center stands about 3,600 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 3,480 ft to 5,310 ft, a difference of 1,830 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Little Creek Peak, about 8,720 ft, 14 miles north-northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Moenkopi Formation (siltstone-mudstone), from the Early Triassic, 247 to 252 million years old.
The section below crosses 6 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.
Arenite, sandstone-mudstone. Age: Early Jurassic to Middle Jurassic, 164 to 202 million years old. About 9 mi of the line.
Siltstone-mudstone. Age: Early Triassic, 247 to 252 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Basalt. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Mudstone. Age: Late Triassic, 202 to 237 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated. Age: Quaternary, less than 2.6 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Limestone. Age: Permian, 273 to 299 million years old. About 0.8 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 Virgin reaches the Gulf of California by way of the Virgin and the Colorado: about 600 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Lake Mead, Lake Mohave and Lake Havasu.
290 miles of the trip are on the Colorado.
Seldom reaches the sea. Dams and canals now take nearly all of the Colorado before its old delta in Mexico.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Virgin; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Virgin has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 98° in July; winter nights fall to about 28° in December. About 12 inches of rain fall in a normal year, with about 1 inch of snow.
On November 14 Virgin normally reaches 62° and falls to 35°. The record high is 80°, in 1990; the record low 18°, in 1959. The most rain on this date, 0.48 in, fell in 1950.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1950 at La Verkin, 4 miles west, 410 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
