The Highland 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.
Partly cloudy
Mostly sunny; warmer
Partly cloudy
Partly cloudy
Chance of showers
Partly cloudy
Showers likely
69° on Nov. 14, 1999, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1928. Next is 67° in 1931.
Highland’s center stands about 1,230 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,030 ft to 1,250 ft, a difference of 220 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Smoky Hill, about 1,520 ft, 15 miles south-southeast.
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 60×. 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.
Highland straddles the St. Lawrence Divide. Rain on the southeast side runs to the Gulf of America; most of the rest goes to Lake Superior.
From the center of town, a raindrop reaches Lake Superior by way of the Bois Brule: about 35 river miles. From there it moves on through the Great Lakes, over Niagara Falls and down the St. Lawrence to the Atlantic. One that lands on the southeast side reaches the Gulf of America by way of Mud Creek, Upper Ox Creek, Lower Ox Creek, the Saint Croix and the Mississippi: about 1,970 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Highland; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Highland has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 78° in July; winter nights fall to about 2° in January. About 33 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Highland normally reaches 38° and falls to 24°. The record high is 69°, in 1999; the record low −5°, in 1943. The most rain on this date, 1.49 in, fell in 2021.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1928 at Brule Ranger Station, 8 miles north-northeast, 230 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
