The Gorham 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.
Gorham’s center stands about 800 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 740 ft to 2,610 ft, a difference of 1,870 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Mount Washington, about 6,260 ft, 10 miles southwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Littleton Formation, undivided (metagraywacke), from the Early Devonian, 410 to 414 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 4×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Metagraywacke. Age: Early Devonian, 410 to 414 million years old. About 9 mi of the line.
Granite. Age: Early Devonian to Late Devonian, 359 to 422 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Quartzite, metasedimentary. Age: Silurian, 422 to 445 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Granofels, calc-silicate-rock, pelitic-schist. Age: Silurian, 422 to 428 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Conglomerate. Age: Silurian, 434 to 445 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Metasandstone. Age: Silurian, 434 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. 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 Gorham reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of the Androscoggin and the Kennebec: about 150 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Gorham; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Gorham 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 Gorham 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, 5 miles north, 120 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
