The Walpole 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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0° on Nov. 16, 1933, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1893. Next is 6° in 1905.
Walpole’s center stands about 410 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 220 ft to 1,280 ft, a difference of 1,060 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Burt Hill, about 2,180 ft, 14 miles west-northwest.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Waits River Formation - muscovite porphyroblastic carbonaceous schist member (staurolite-grade rocks) (muscovite-schist, metagraywacke), from the Silurian to Early Devonian, 394 to 425 million years old.
The section below crosses 14 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 13×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Slate, schist. Age: Middle Ordovician to Late Ordovician, 445 to 471 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Metagraywacke. Age: Early Devonian, 410 to 414 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Muscovite-schist, metagraywacke. Age: Silurian to Early Devonian, 394 to 425 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Slate, phyllite. Age: Late Ordovician, 445 to 459 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Phyllite, limestone. Age: Silurian to Early Devonian, 394 to 425 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. 8 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 Walpole reaches Long Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean by way of Mad Brook and the Connecticut: about 170 river miles.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Walpole; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Walpole 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 Walpole 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, 11 miles south-southeast, 100 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
