The Fitzwilliam 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.
Mostly cloudy
Partly cloudy
Partly cloudy
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny
Partly cloudy
Mostly sunny
6° on Nov. 11, 1956, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1949. Next is 7° in 1986.
Fitzwilliam’s center stands about 1,170 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,010 ft to 1,550 ft, a difference of 540 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Monadnock Mountain, about 3,130 ft, 6 miles north-northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Concord Granite, from the Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old.
The section below crosses 11 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.
Granite. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Gneiss, amphibolite. Age: Late Ordovician to Silurian, 440 to 454 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Metasedimentary. Age: Early Devonian, 394 to 422 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Metaclastic. Age: Early Devonian, 394 to 422 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Quartz-diorite, tonalite, granodiorite. Age: Early Devonian, 394 to 422 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Gneiss. Age: Early Devonian, 394 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. 5 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 Fitzwilliam reaches Long Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Kemp Brook, Towne Brook, Priest Brook, the Millers and the Connecticut: about 170 river miles.
130 miles of the trip are on the Connecticut.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Fitzwilliam; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Fitzwilliam has a hot-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 85° in July; winter nights fall to about 14° in January. A normal year brings about 52 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 47 inches of water.
On November 14 Fitzwilliam normally reaches 50° and falls to 32°. The record high is 67°, in 1964; the record low 7°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 1.89 in, fell in 2022.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1949 at Tully Lake, 11 miles south-southwest, 490 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
