The Sampson 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.
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny; warmer
Partly cloudy
Partly cloudy
Chance of showers
Partly cloudy
Showers likely
−3° on Nov. 17, 1959, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1944. Next is −3° in 1986.
Sampson’s center stands about 1,100 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,060 ft to 1,210 ft, a difference of 150 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Baldy Mountain, about 1,380 ft, 8 miles east-southeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Cambrian, undivided (sandstone), from the Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 56×. 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. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million years old. About 24 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 Sampson reaches the Gulf of America by way of Cedar Creek, Swift Creek, the Chippewa and the Mississippi: about 1,880 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Lake Wissota and Holcombe Flowage.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Sampson; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Sampson has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 82° in July; winter nights fall to about 3° in January. A normal year brings about 42 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 32 inches of water.
On November 14 Sampson normally reaches 41° and falls to 25°. The record high is 67°, in 1999; the record low 1°, in 1976. The most rain on this date, 0.69 in, fell in 2010.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1944 at Bloomer, 11 miles south-southwest, 110 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
