The Caledonia 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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3.10 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1936. The next wettest, 1.98 inches, fell in 2021.
Caledonia’s center stands about 730 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 640 ft to 760 ft, a difference of 120 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Peacock Hill, about 1,260 ft, 12 miles east-northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Cambrian, undivided (sandstone), from the Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old.
The section below crosses 4 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 29×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Sandstone. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 17 mi of the line.
Dolostone, sandstone. Age: Early Ordovician, 471 to 487 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone, shale. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 497 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone, shale. Age: Middle Cambrian to Cambrian, 487 to 521 million years old. About 0.2 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale.
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 Caledonia reaches the Gulf of America by way of Tank Creek and the Mississippi: about 1,690 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Caledonia; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Caledonia has a hot-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 82° in July; winter nights fall to about 9° in January. A normal year brings about 36 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 35 inches of water.
On November 14 Caledonia normally reaches 44° and falls to 29°. The record high is 65°, in 1964; the record low 7°, in 1996. The most rain on this date, 0.46 in, fell in 2010.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1936 at Trempealeau Dam 6, 4 miles west-southwest. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
