The Markesan 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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72° on Nov. 14, 1999, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1954. Next is 71° in 2001.
Markesan’s center stands about 870 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 840 ft to 1,050 ft, a difference of 210 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Scott Hill, about 1,020 ft, 12 miles east-northeast.
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 4 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.
Dolostone. Age: Early Ordovician, 471 to 487 million years old. About 11 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Dolostone. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 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 Markesan reaches Lake Michigan by way of the Grand River and the Fox River: about 160 river miles. From there it moves on through the Great Lakes, over Niagara Falls and down the St. Lawrence to the Atlantic.
Lakes on the way: Lake Winnebago 6124, Lake Butte des Morts and Puckaway Lake.
50 miles of the trip are on the Fox River.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Markesan; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Markesan has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 82° in July; winter nights fall to about 8° in January. A normal year brings about 42 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 36 inches of water.
On November 14 Markesan normally reaches 45° and falls to 27°. The record high is 72°, in 1999; the record low 3°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 1.53 in, fell in 1956.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1954 at Montello Wwtp, 17 miles west-northwest. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
