The Arvada 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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−16° on Nov. 13, 2014, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1964. Next is −12° in 2000.
Arvada’s center stands about 3,670 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 3,610 ft to 4,180 ft, a difference of 570 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Arpan Butte, about 4,490 ft, 13 miles southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Alluvium and Colluvium (clay, silt, sand), from the Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 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 21×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Mudstone, sandstone. Age: Eocene, 34 to 56 million years old. About 20 mi of the line.
Sandstone, shale, coal. Age: Paleocene, 56 to 66 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Clay, silt, sand. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 0.8 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 Arvada reaches the Gulf of America by way of Deadman Creek, the Powder River, the Yellowstone, the Missouri and the Mississippi: about 3,150 river miles.
Lakes on the way: Lake Oahe, Lake Sakakawea, Lake Sharpe and Lake Francis Case.
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 Arvada; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Arvada has a hot-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 89° in July; winter nights fall to about 14° in January. A normal year brings about 53 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 16 inches of water.
On November 14 Arvada normally reaches 46° and falls to 23°. The record high is 71°, in 1999; the record low −15°, in 2014. The most rain on this date, 0.60 in, fell in 1991.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1964 at Leiter 9 N, 16 miles north-northwest, 490 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
