The Gilead 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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3.12 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1886. The next wettest, 2.50 inches, fell in 1937.
Gilead’s center stands about 730 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 680 ft to 2,480 ft, a difference of 1,800 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Carter Dome, about 4,830 ft, 13 miles southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Devonian Littleton Formation (schist), from the Early Devonian, 394 to 414 million years old.
The section below crosses 7 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 6×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Schist. Age: Early Devonian, 394 to 414 million years old. About 11 mi of the line.
Shale, sandstone. Age: Silurian, 425 to 434 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Migmatite. Age: Silurian to Devonian, 359 to 445 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Mudstone, sandstone. Age: Silurian, 428 to 445 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Granite. Age: Devonian, 359 to 422 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Quartzite, calc-silicate-rock. Age: Silurian to Devonian, 359 to 445 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. 1 smaller unit 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 Gilead reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of the Androscoggin and the Kennebec: about 140 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Gilead; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Gilead has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 78° in July; winter nights fall to about 5° in January. A normal year brings about 82 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 43 inches of water.
On November 14 Gilead normally reaches 45° and falls to 26°. The record high is 66°, in 2012; the record low 4°, in 2019. The most rain on this date, 2.05 in, fell in 1937.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1886 at Berlin, 11 miles west-northwest, 190 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
