The Brodhead 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.
Sunny
Mostly sunny; warmer
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Chance of showers
−7° on Nov. 15, 1959, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1897. Next is −1° in 2019.
Brodhead’s center stands about 800 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 770 ft to 940 ft, a difference of 170 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Liberty Pole Hill, about 1,110 ft, 15 miles north.
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 3 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 63×. 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: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 10 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 10 mi of the line.
Dolostone. Age: Early Ordovician, 471 to 487 million years old. About 4 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 Brodhead reaches the Gulf of America by way of Taylor Creek, the Sugar, the Pecatonica, the Rock River and the Mississippi: about 1,650 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Brodhead; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Brodhead has a hot-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 83° in July; winter nights fall to about 11° in January. A normal year brings about 37 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 38 inches of water.
On November 14 Brodhead normally reaches 47° and falls to 28°. The record high is 71°, in 1999; the record low 3°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 1.25 in, fell in 1899.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1897 at Brodhead Wwtp, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
