The Shirley 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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67° on Nov. 11, 2020, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1920. Next is 66° in 2022.
Shirley’s center stands about 1,090 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 710 ft to 1,410 ft, a difference of 700 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Big Moose Mountain, about 3,160 ft, 10 miles north-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Devonian Carrabassett Formation, massive pelite member (mudstone), from the Devonian, 359 to 422 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 9×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Mudstone. Age: Devonian, 359 to 422 million years old. About 9 mi of the line.
Mudstone, sandstone. Age: Early Devonian, 410 to 414 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Quartzite, calc-silicate-rock. Age: Silurian to Devonian, 359 to 445 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Schist. Age: Devonian, 359 to 422 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Age: Devonian, 359 to 422 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Gabbro. Age: Devonian, 359 to 422 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. 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 Shirley reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of the East Branch Piscataquis, the Piscataquis and the Penobscot: about 130 river miles.
65 miles of the trip are on the Piscataquis.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Shirley; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Shirley has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 75° in July; winter nights fall to about 5° in January. About 44 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Shirley normally reaches 40° and falls to 27°. The record high is 58°, in 1959; the record low 7°, in 2018. The most rain on this date, 1.23 in, fell in 2006.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1920 at Greenville Municipal Airport, 8 miles north-northeast, 300 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
