The Quilcene 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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5.71 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1920. The next wettest, 4.45 inches, fell in 1981.
Quilcene’s center stands about 750 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 10 ft to 3,890 ft, a difference of 3,880 ft: mountain country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Mount Constance, about 7,500 ft, 11 miles west-southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Middle and lower Eocene volcanic rocks (basalt), from the Early Paleocene to Middle Eocene, 40 to 64 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 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.
Basalt. Age: Early Paleocene to Middle Eocene, 40 to 64 million years old. About 11 mi of the line.
Fine-detrital, coarse-detrital. Age: Pleistocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Triassic to Late Eocene, 34 to 252 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Early Eocene to Middle Eocene, 38 to 56 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Fine-detrital, coarse-detrital. Age: Pleistocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 0.7 mi of the line.
Basalt. Age: Eocene to Oligocene, 23 to 56 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.
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 Quilcene reaches Puget Sound and the Pacific Ocean by way of the Little Quilcene: about 3 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Quilcene; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Quilcene has a cold desert climate. Summer afternoons average 77° in July; winter nights fall to about 32° in January. Barely 0.0 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Quilcene normally reaches 51° and falls to 35°. The record high is 65°, in 1934; the record low 12°, in 1955. The most rain on this date, 3.65 in, fell in 1981.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1920 at Quilcene 2 SW, 2 miles south, 630 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
