The Superior 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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3.36 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1909. The next wettest, 2.32 inches, fell in 2015.
Superior’s center stands about 740 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 640 ft to 820 ft, a difference of 180 ft: gently rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Pikes Peak, about 1,330 ft, 13 miles southeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Bayfield Group; Orienta Sandstone (arkose), from the Mesoproterozoic, 1 to 1.6 billion 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 26×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Arkose. Age: Mesoproterozoic, 1 to 1.6 billion years old. About 12 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Mesoproterozoic, 1 to 1.6 billion years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Basalt. Age: Mesoproterozoic, 1 to 1.6 billion years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Anorthosite. Age: Mesoproterozoic, 1 to 1.2 billion years old. About 0.7 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.
A raindrop that lands in Superior reaches Lake Superior by way of the Nemadji: about 20 river miles. From there it moves on through the Great Lakes, over Niagara Falls and down the St. Lawrence to the Atlantic.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Superior; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Superior has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 76° in July; winter nights fall to about 6° in January. A normal year brings about 56 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 31 inches of water.
On November 14 Superior normally reaches 40° and falls to 26°. The record high is 67°, in 1953; the record low −2°, in 1919. The most rain on this date, 1.36 in, fell in 1909.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1909 at Superior, 11 miles north-northeast, 130 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
