The Rush River 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.
Rush River’s center stands about 1,080 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,030 ft to 1,230 ft, a difference of 200 ft: gently 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 3 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 48×. 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 12 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 10 mi of the line.
Dolostone. Age: Ordovician, 445 to 487 million years old. About 3 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 Rush River reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Rush and the Mississippi: about 1,790 river miles.
Lake on the way: Lake Pepin.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Rush River; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Rush River 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 Rush River 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, 11 miles west-southwest, 140 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.