The Wilson 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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Chance of showers; cooler
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64° on Nov. 15, 1990, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1905. Next is 63° in 1999.
Wilson’s center stands about 6,150 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 6,110 ft to 8,450 ft, a difference of 2,340 ft: mountain country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Buck Mountain, about 11,370 ft, 13 miles north-northeast.
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 8 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 4×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Clay, silt, sand. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Dolostone, limestone. Age: Middle Cambrian to Late Ordovician, 445 to 521 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Shale, siltstone. Age: Early Cretaceous, 100 to 145 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Unconsolidated. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Sand, gravel, boulders. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Amphibolite, hornblende-gneiss, biotite-gneiss. Age: Archean. 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. 2 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 Wilson reaches the Pacific Ocean by way of Trail Creek, the Snake and the Columbia: about 1,270 river miles.
Lakes on the way: American Falls Reservoir, Palisades Reservoir, Lake Umatilla and Brownlee Reservoir.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Wilson; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Wilson has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 79° in July; winter nights fall to about 6° in January. A normal year brings about 78 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 18 inches of water.
On November 14 Wilson normally reaches 38° and falls to 16°. The record high is 62°, in 1999; the record low −12°, in 1922. The most rain on this date, 0.65 in, fell in 1983.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1905 at Jackson, 6 miles east. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
