The Hamden 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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73° on Nov. 11, 2020, the hottest reading for this week of the year since 1924. Next is 70° in 1956.
Hamden’s center stands about 1,290 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 1,260 ft to 2,510 ft, a difference of 1,250 ft: steep hill country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Mount Pisgah, about 3,350 ft, 13 miles east.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Lower Walton Formation (sandstone, conglomerate, shale), from the Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old.
The section below crosses 4 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.
Sandstone, conglomerate, shale. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old. About 12 mi of the line.
Shale, sandstone, conglomerate. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old. About 11 mi of the line.
Sandstone, shale. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old. About 0.9 mi of the line.
Shale, sandstone, conglomerate. Age: Late Devonian, 359 to 384 million years old. About 0.2 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale.
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 Hamden reaches Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean by way of the West Branch Delaware and the Delaware: about 350 river miles.
Lake on the way: Cannonsville Reservoir.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Hamden; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Hamden has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 80° in July; winter nights fall to about 12° in January. A normal year brings about 71 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 49 inches of water.
On November 14 Hamden normally reaches 48° and falls to 28°. The record high is 68°, in 2022; the record low 9°, in 1986. The most rain on this date, 0.93 in, fell in 2007.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1924 at Delhi 2 SE, 6 miles northeast, 170 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
