The Gordon 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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−13° on Nov. 12, 1966, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1951. Next is −10° in 1959.
Gordon’s center stands about 1,060 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,010 ft to 1,130 ft, a difference of 120 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Smoky Hill, about 1,520 ft, 15 miles east.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Copper Harbor Conglomerate (sandstone, conglomerate), from the Mesoproterozoic, 1 to 1.6 billion years old.
The section below crosses 2 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 64×. 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, conglomerate. Age: Mesoproterozoic, 1 to 1.6 billion years old. About 17 mi of the line.
Basalt. Age: Mesoproterozoic, 1 to 1.6 billion years old. About 7 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 Gordon reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Eau Claire, the Saint Croix and the Mississippi: about 1,950 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Lake Pepin and Lake Mallalieu 175.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Gordon; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Gordon has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 80° in July; winter nights fall to about −1° in January. A normal year brings about 60 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 33 inches of water.
On November 14 Gordon normally reaches 38° and falls to 22°. The record high is 67°, in 1999; the record low −10°, in 1959. The most rain on this date, 1.10 in, fell in 2010.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1951 at Gordon, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
