The Empire 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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75° on Nov. 17, 1931, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1893. Next is 71° in 1927.
Empire’s center stands about 1,030 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 840 ft to 1,170 ft, a difference of 330 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Dundee Mountain, about 1,250 ft, 11 miles southeast.
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 44×. 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 15 mi of the line.
Dolostone. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Shale, dolostone. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 1 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 Empire reaches Lake Michigan by way of Taycheedah Creek and the Fox River: about 80 river miles. From there it moves on through the Great Lakes, over Niagara Falls and down the St. Lawrence to the Atlantic.
Lake on the way: Lake Winnebago 6124.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Empire; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Empire has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 80° in July; winter nights fall to about 9° in January. A normal year brings about 38 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 31 inches of water.
On November 14 Empire normally reaches 43° and falls to 28°. The record high is 69°, in 1971; the record low 1°, in 1916. The most rain on this date, 0.80 in, fell in 1957.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1893 at Fond Du Lac Wwtp, 6 miles west-northwest, 280 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
