The Alcova 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
Partly cloudy
Partly cloudy
Mostly sunny; cooler
Partly cloudy
Showers likely
74° on Nov. 14, 1941, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1905. Next is 67° in 2025.
Alcova’s center stands about 5,360 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 5,310 ft to 6,120 ft, a difference of 810 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Bear Mountain, about 7,520 ft, 12 miles southeast.
The section below crosses 10 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 11×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Claystone, conglomerate. Age: Late Eocene to Early Oligocene, 31 to 35 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Conglomerate, conglomerate-sandstone. Age: Oligocene, 23 to 34 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Claystone. Age: Eocene, 34 to 56 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Shale, sandstone. Age: Late Cretaceous, 66 to 100 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Miocene, 5.3 to 23 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Sandstone, claystone, limestone. Age: Middle Jurassic to Early Cretaceous, 100 to 175 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 4 smaller units along the line are not listed.
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 Alcova reaches the Gulf of America by way of the North Platte, the Platte, the Missouri and the Mississippi: about 2,540 river miles.
1,170 miles of the trip are on the Mississippi.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Alcova; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Alcova has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 86° in July; winter nights fall to about 16° in January. About 11 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Alcova normally reaches 46° and falls to 28°. The record high is 74°, in 1941; the record low −12°, in 1959. The most rain on this date, 0.25 in, fell in 1944.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1905 at Pathfinder Dam, 9 miles southwest, 560 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
