The Aurora 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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−6° on Nov. 17, 1959, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1899. Next is −2° in 1986.
Aurora’s center stands about 1,080 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,040 ft to 1,330 ft, a difference of 290 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Millie Hill, about 1,590 ft, 4 miles northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Mafic metavolcanic rocks (basalt, basaltic-andesite), from the Paleoproterozoic, 1.6 to 2.5 billion years old.
The section below crosses 9 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 35×. 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, basaltic-andesite. Age: Paleoproterozoic, 1.6 to 2.5 billion years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Mixed-clastic, metagraywacke. Age: Paleoproterozoic, 1.6 to 2.5 billion years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Granite. Age: Paleoproterozoic, 1.8 to 1.8 billion years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Metasedimentary, metavolcanic. Age: Paleoproterozoic, 1.6 to 2.5 billion years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Gneiss, amphibolite, migmatite. Age: Paleoarchean to Neoarchean, 2.5 to 3.6 billion years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Basalt, basaltic-andesite. Age: Paleoproterozoic, 1.6 to 2.5 billion years old. About 2 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 3 smaller units 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 Aurora reaches Lake Michigan by way of the North Branch Pemebonwon, the Pemebonwon and the Menominee: about 100 river miles. From there it moves on through the Great Lakes, over Niagara Falls and down the St. Lawrence to the Atlantic.
70 miles of the trip are on the Menominee.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Aurora; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Aurora has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 80° in July; winter nights fall to about 4° in January. A normal year brings about 61 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 32 inches of water.
On November 14 Aurora normally reaches 41° and falls to 25°. The record high is 70°, in 1999; the record low 2°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 0.92 in, fell in 2000.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1899 at Iron Mtn-Kingsford Wwtp, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
