The Worland 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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72° on Nov. 13, 1989, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1907. Next is 72° in 1999.
Worland’s center stands about 4,050 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 4,020 ft to 4,340 ft, a difference of 320 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Potter Butte, about 4,690 ft, 14 miles south.
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 4 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 28×. 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, shale, sandstone. Age: Eocene, 34 to 56 million years old. About 11 mi of the line.
Gravel. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Clay, silt, sand. Age: Pleistocene to Holocene, less than 2.6 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Sandstone, shale. Age: Paleocene, 56 to 66 million years old. About 0.3 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 Worland reaches the Gulf of America by way of the Bighorn, the Yellowstone, the Missouri and the Mississippi: about 3,260 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 Worland; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Worland has a cold semi-arid climate. Summer afternoons average 91° in July; winter nights fall to about 4° in January. About 9 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Worland normally reaches 46° and falls to 18°. The record high is 69°, in 1999; the record low −22°, in 2014. The most rain on this date, 0.65 in, fell in 1991.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1907 at Worland, here. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
