The Cowley 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
Mostly cloudy
Chance of showers
Mostly sunny; cooler
Mostly cloudy
Chance of showers
−27° on Nov. 16, 1959, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1897. Next is −20° in 1911.
Cowley’s center stands about 3,990 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 3,900 ft to 4,250 ft, a difference of 350 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Little Sheep Mountain, about 5,140 ft, 12 miles east-southeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Gravel, pediment, and fan deposits, from the Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 million years old.
The section below crosses 12 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 14×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Gravel. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Sandstone, shale. Age: Late Cretaceous, 66 to 100 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Limestone, sandstone, shale. Age: Middle Jurassic to Late Jurassic, 158 to 172 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Sandstone, shale. Age: Paleocene, 56 to 66 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Shale, siltstone. Age: Late Cretaceous, 78 to 83 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Clay, silt, sand. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 6 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 Cowley reaches the Gulf of America by way of Sage Creek, the Shoshone, the Bighorn, the Yellowstone, the Missouri and the Mississippi: about 3,200 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 Cowley; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Cowley has a cold desert climate. Summer afternoons average 87° in July; winter nights fall to about 7° in January. A normal year brings about 13 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 6 inches of water.
On November 14 Cowley normally reaches 45° and falls to 21°. The record high is 69°, in 1999; the record low −20°, in 1959. The most rain on this date, 0.16 in, fell in 1991.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1897 at Lovell, 4 miles southeast, 140 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
