The Ranchester 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
Chance of showers
Chance of showers; cooler
Chance of showers
Chance of showers
81° on Nov. 12, 1999, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1907. Next is 75° in 2025.
Ranchester’s center stands about 3,770 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 3,710 ft to 4,110 ft, a difference of 400 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Walker Mountain, about 8,590 ft, 15 miles south-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 16 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 5×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Shale. Age: Paleocene, 56 to 66 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Clay, silt, sand. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Sandstone, shale, coal. Age: Paleocene, 56 to 66 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Sandstone, shale. Age: Early Paleocene to Middle Paleocene, 59 to 66 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Dolostone, limestone. Age: Middle Cambrian to Late Ordovician, 445 to 521 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Sandstone, siltstone, shale. Age: Early Eocene, 48 to 56 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. 10 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 Ranchester reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Tongue River, the Yellowstone, the Missouri and the Mississippi: about 3,180 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 Ranchester; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Ranchester has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 88° in July; winter nights fall to about 12° in January. About 15 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Ranchester normally reaches 47° and falls to 20°. The record high is 75°, in 2025; the record low −19°, in 1959. The most rain on this date, 0.54 in, fell in 1964.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1907 from the Sheridan Area threaded record (Sheridan Airport, 14 miles southeast, 200 ft higher). NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
