The Canton 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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3.71 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1893. The next wettest, 3.41 inches, fell in 1947.
Canton’s center stands about 130 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 40 ft to 320 ft, a difference of 280 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Great Blue Hill, about 630 ft, 4 miles north-northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Dedham Granite, from the Neoproterozoic, 615 to 645 million years old.
The section below crosses 10 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 33×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Granite. Age: Neoproterozoic, 615 to 645 million years old. About 9 mi of the line.
Sandstone, graywacke. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Conglomerate, sandstone, siltstone. Age: Neoproterozoic to Early Cambrian, 521 to 1,000 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Conglomerate, graywacke. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 324 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Alkali-granite. Age: Late Ordovician to Silurian, 428 to 459 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Argillite. Age: Neoproterozoic to Early Cambrian, 521 to 1,000 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. 4 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 Canton reaches Boston Harbor and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Pequid Brook, the East Branch Neponset and the Neponset: about 19 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Canton; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Canton has a hot-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 82° in July; winter nights fall to about 18° in January. A normal year brings about 70 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 54 inches of water.
On November 14 Canton normally reaches 51° and falls to 34°. The record high is 68°, in 1956; the record low 11°, in 1905. The most rain on this date, 2.08 in, fell in 2009.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1893 from the Milton Area threaded record (Blue Hill Lcd, 4 miles north-northeast, 500 ft higher). NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
