The Maxfield 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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3.92 inches of rain fell in two days, the most for this week of the year since records began in 1902. The next wettest, 3.44 inches, fell in 1918.
Maxfield’s center stands about 410 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 170 ft to 420 ft, a difference of 250 ft: rolling country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Mattamiscontis Mountain, about 1,280 ft, 10 miles north.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Devonian - Silurian Madrid Formation (quartzite, calc-silicate-rock), from the Silurian to Devonian, 359 to 445 million years old.
The section below crosses 6 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 30×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Quartzite, calc-silicate-rock. Age: Silurian to Devonian, 359 to 445 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Sandstone. Age: Late Ordovician to Silurian, 428 to 459 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Schist. Age: Devonian, 359 to 422 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Slate, sandstone. Age: Silurian, 422 to 445 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Age: Devonian, 359 to 422 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
Shale, sandstone. Age: Silurian, 428 to 434 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 Maxfield reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of Maxy Brook, the Piscataquis and the Penobscot: about 65 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Maxfield; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Maxfield has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 79° in July; winter nights fall to about 6° in January. About 43 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Maxfield normally reaches 43° and falls to 28°. The record high is 66°, in 1903; the record low 8°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 2.01 in, fell in 2006.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1902 from the Millinocket Area threaded record (Millinocket Municipal Airport, 23 miles north). NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
