The Hammond 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.
3.24 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1918. The next wettest, 2.10 inches, fell in 1940.
Hammond’s center stands about 1,170 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,010 ft to 1,220 ft, a difference of 210 ft: rolling country.
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 2 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 51×. 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: Early Ordovician, 471 to 487 million years old. About 19 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 5 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 Hammond reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Kinnickinnic and the Mississippi: about 1,830 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 Hammond; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Hammond has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 82° in July; winter nights fall to about 4° in January. About 34 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Hammond normally reaches 42° and falls to 24°. The record high is 71°, in 1990; the record low −8°, in 1940. The most rain on this date, 1.09 in, fell in 1951.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1918 at River Falls, 12 miles southwest, 230 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.