The Duluth 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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3.59 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1928. The next wettest, 3.45 inches, fell in 1946.
Duluth’s center stands about 280 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 40 ft to 390 ft, a difference of 350 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Davis Peak, about 2,910 ft, 15 miles north.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Quaternary nonmarine deposits (sandstone, clay, volcanic), from the Pleistocene, 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 13×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Sandstone, clay, volcanic. Age: Pleistocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 9 mi of the line.
Conglomerate. Age: Pliocene, 2.6 to 5.3 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Sand, gravel, silt. Age: Holocene, less than 12,000 years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Basalt, basaltic-andesite. Age: Late Eocene to Oligocene, 23 to 38 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Silt, sand. Age: Holocene, less than 12,000 years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Gravel, sand. Age: Pleistocene, less than 2.6 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. 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 Duluth reaches the Pacific Ocean by way of Gee Creek and the Columbia: about 95 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Duluth; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Duluth has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate. Summer afternoons average 80° in August; winter nights fall to about 32° in January. About 52 inches of rain fall in a normal year, with about 1 inch of snow.
On November 14 Duluth normally reaches 52° and falls to 36°. The record high is 71°, in 1995; the record low 9°, in 1955. The most rain on this date, 1.77 in, fell in 1942.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1928 at Battle Ground, 6 miles east. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
