The Elma 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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5.49 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1896. The next wettest, 5.22 inches, fell in 2001.
Elma’s center stands about 70 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 20 ft to 450 ft, a difference of 430 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Larch Mountain, about 2,690 ft, 13 miles east.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Alluvium (silt, sand), from the Holocene, less than 12,000 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 9×. 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, siltstone. Age: Miocene to Pliocene, 2.6 to 23 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Silt, sand. Age: Holocene, less than 12,000 years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Basalt. Age: Early Paleocene to Middle Eocene, 40 to 64 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone. Age: Middle Eocene to Early Miocene, 16 to 48 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone. Age: Miocene, 5.3 to 23 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Fine-detrital, coarse-detrital. 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 Elma reaches the Pacific Ocean by way of Vance Creek and the Chehalis: about 30 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Elma; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Elma has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate. Summer afternoons average 80° in August; winter nights fall to about 34° in February. About 72 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Elma normally reaches 53° and falls to 37°. The record high is 67°, in 1995; the record low 6°, in 1955. The most rain on this date, 4.52 in, fell in 2001.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1896 at Elma, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
