The Marlborough 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.
0° on Nov. 16, 1933, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1893. Next is 6° in 1905.
Marlborough’s center stands about 750 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 470 ft to 1,440 ft, a difference of 970 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Monadnock Mountain, about 3,130 ft, 6 miles east-southeast.
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 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, granodiorite, tonalite. Age: Late Ordovician, 445 to 459 million years old. About 6 mi of the line.
Pelitic-schist, metasandstone. Age: Silurian, 434 to 445 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Granite. Age: Late Ordovician, 445 to 459 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.
Metaclastic. Age: Early Devonian, 394 to 422 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Metaclastic. Age: Silurian, 434 to 445 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 Marlborough reaches Long Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Minnewawa Brook, The Branch, the Ashuelot and the Connecticut: about 170 river miles.
140 miles of the trip are on the Connecticut.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Marlborough; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Marlborough has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 82° in July; winter nights fall to about 10° in January. A normal year brings about 60 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 46 inches of water.
On November 14 Marlborough normally reaches 47° and falls to 27°. The record high is 68°, in 1989; the record low 6°, in 1905. The most rain on this date, 1.61 in, fell in 1937.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1893 at Keene, 6 miles west-northwest, 240 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.