The Princeton 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.
Partly cloudy
Mostly sunny; warmer
Partly cloudy
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny
3.64 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1892. The next wettest, 2.98 inches, fell in 1947.
Princeton’s center stands about 1,200 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 560 ft to 1,700 ft, a difference of 1,140 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Wachusett Mountain, about 2,000 ft, 2 miles north.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Fitchburg Complex (gneiss), from the Early Devonian to Late Devonian, 375 to 405 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 16×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Granofels, schist. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Schist, phyllite. Age: Early Devonian, 394 to 422 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Granite. Age: Early Devonian to Late Devonian, 375 to 405 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Metasedimentary, muscovite-schist. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Mica-schist. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Gneiss. Age: Early Devonian to Late Devonian, 375 to 405 million years old. About 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. 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 Princeton reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of Babcock Brook, East Wachusett Brook, the Stillwater, the Nashua and the Merrimack: about 110 river miles.
55 miles of the trip are on the Merrimack.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Princeton; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Princeton has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 80° in July; winter nights fall to about 17° in January. A normal year brings about 73 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 48 inches of water.
On November 14 Princeton normally reaches 48° and falls to 33°. The record high is 68°, in 1989; the record low 10°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 1.58 in, fell in 2009.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1892 from the Worcester Area threaded record (Worcester Regional Airport, 13 miles south, 200 ft lower). NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
