The Arlington 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.
1° on Nov. 12, 2019, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1962. Next is 2° in 1986.
Arlington’s center stands about 1,040 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 910 ft to 1,110 ft, a difference of 200 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Cascade Mountain, about 1,310 ft, 13 miles northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Prairie du Chien Group (dolostone), from the Early Ordovician, 471 to 487 million years old.
The section below crosses 2 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 53×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Dolostone. Age: Early Ordovician, 471 to 487 million years old. About 14 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 10 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 Arlington reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Yahara, the Rock River and the Mississippi: about 1,710 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Lake Mendota 254, Lake Waubesa and Lake Kegonsa 410.
1,450 miles of the trip are on the Mississippi.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Arlington; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Arlington has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 82° in July; winter nights fall to about 9° in January. A normal year brings about 43 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 36 inches of water.
On November 14 Arlington normally reaches 45° and falls to 27°. The record high is 69°, in 1971; the record low 8°, in 1996. The most rain on this date, 0.43 in, fell in 1980.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1962 at Arlington, 3 miles south-southeast. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.