The Ashford 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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69° on Nov. 17, 2016, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1996. Next is 68° in 2023.
Ashford’s center stands about 1,050 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 980 ft to 1,160 ft, a difference of 180 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Dundee Mountain, about 1,250 ft, 11 miles east-northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Silurian, undivided (dolostone), from the Silurian, 422 to 445 million years old.
The section below crosses 3 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 51×. 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: Silurian, 422 to 445 million years old. About 21 mi of the line.
Shale, dolostone. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Dolostone. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 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.
Ashford straddles the St. Lawrence Divide. Rain on the southwest side runs to the Gulf of America; most of the rest goes to Lake Michigan.
From the center of town, a raindrop reaches Lake Michigan by way of the West Branch Milwaukee, the Milwaukee and the Kinnickinnic: about 90 river miles. From there it moves on through the Great Lakes, over Niagara Falls and down the St. Lawrence to the Atlantic. One that lands on the southwest side reaches the Gulf of America by way of the East Branch Rock, the Rock River and the Mississippi: about 1,780 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Ashford; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Ashford has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 82° in July; winter nights fall to about 11° in January. About 28 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Ashford normally reaches 45° and falls to 29°. The record high is 64°, in 2025; the record low 10°, in 1996. The most rain on this date, 0.10 in, fell in 2024.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1996 at Fond Du Lac County Airport, 14 miles north-northwest, 260 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
