The Middleton 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
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Partly cloudy
76° on Nov. 11, 2020, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1953. Next is 73° in 2022.
Middleton’s center stands about 750 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 490 ft to 1,570 ft, a difference of 1,080 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Straightback Mountain, about 1,880 ft, 12 miles west.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Lower part of Rangeley Formation (metaclastic), 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 16×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Quartzite, metasedimentary. Age: Silurian, 422 to 445 million years old. About 8 mi of the line.
Granite. Age: Carboniferous, 299 to 359 million years old. About 5 mi of the line.
Metaclastic. Age: Silurian, 434 to 445 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Calc-silicate-rock. Age: Silurian, 434 to 445 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Pelitic-schist, metasandstone. Age: Silurian, 434 to 445 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Gabbro. Age: Cretaceous, 66 to 145 million years old. About 0.8 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 Middleton reaches the Atlantic Ocean by way of Jones Brook, the Branch, the Salmon Falls and the Piscataqua: about 50 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Middleton; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Middleton has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 81° in July; winter nights fall to about 10° in January. About 51 inches of rain fall in a normal year.
On November 14 Middleton normally reaches 49° and falls to 27°. The record high is 71°, in 1989; the record low 9°, in 2019. The most rain on this date, 1.60 in, fell in 2018.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1953 at Sanford 2 NNW, 15 miles east, 460 ft lower. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
