The Gilford 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; warmer
Partly cloudy
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny
Partly cloudy
73° on Nov. 11, 2020, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1926. Next is 70° in 2022.
Gilford’s center stands about 750 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 500 ft to 2,060 ft, a difference of 1,560 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Mount Roberts, about 2,570 ft, 15 miles north-northeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Upper part of Rangeley Formation (pelitic-schist, metasandstone), from the Silurian, 434 to 445 million years old.
The section below crosses 9 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 11×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Granodiorite. Age: Early Devonian, 394 to 422 million years old. About 9 mi of the line.
Pelitic-schist, metasandstone. Age: Silurian, 434 to 445 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Quartz-syenite. Age: Jurassic, 145 to 202 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Monzodiorite. Age: Jurassic, 145 to 202 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Granite. Age: Jurassic, 145 to 202 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Granite. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 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. 3 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 Gilford reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of the Gunstock, the Winnipesaukee and the Merrimack: about 150 river miles.
Lake on the way: Lake Winnipesaukee.
120 miles of the trip are on the Merrimack.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Gilford; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Gilford has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 82° in July; winter nights fall to about 12° in January. A normal year brings about 62 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 46 inches of water.
On November 14 Gilford normally reaches 48° and falls to 30°. The record high is 62°, in 2010; the record low 8°, in 2019. The most rain on this date, 3.40 in, fell in 1937.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1926 at Lakeport 2, 3 miles west, 250 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
