The Benson 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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−5° on Nov. 16, 1933, the coldest reading for this week of the year since 1916. Next is −4° in 1916.
Benson’s center stands about 380 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 210 ft to 710 ft, a difference of 500 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Herrick Mountain, about 2,720 ft, 14 miles southeast.
Under the town center the state geologic map shows Hortonville Formation - shale and phyllite (shale, phyllite, limestone), from the Late Ordovician, 445 to 459 million years old.
The section below crosses 13 rock units mapped at the surface.
Heights every 0.1 mile from the Copernicus GLO-90 surface model; vertical exaggeration about 12×. The colored band under the surface is the rock the state geologic map shows at the surface, not a picture of what lies beneath.
Phyllite. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 7 mi of the line.
Shale, phyllite, limestone. Age: Late Ordovician, 445 to 459 million years old. About 3 mi of the line.
Charnockite, gneiss. Age: Mesoproterozoic, 1 to 1.6 billion years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Paragneiss. Age: Mesoproterozoic, 1 to 1.6 billion years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Slate, phyllite. Age: Neoproterozoic to Early Cambrian, 521 to 1,000 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Slate, phyllite. Age: Early Cambrian to Middle Cambrian, 497 to 542 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. 7 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 Benson reaches the St. Lawrence River by way of the Hubbardton, the Poultney and the Richelieu: about 220 river miles. The St. Lawrence carries it on to the Atlantic.
Lake on the way: Lake Champlain.
95 miles of the trip are on the Poultney.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Benson; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Benson has a warm-summer humid continental climate. Summer afternoons average 80° in July; winter nights fall to about 8° in January. A normal year brings about 75 inches of snow; with the rain, that comes to about 40 inches of water.
On November 14 Benson normally reaches 47° and falls to 26°. The record high is 69°, in 1989; the record low 1°, in 2019. The most rain on this date, 1.20 in, fell in 1937.
Normals 1991–2020 and records since 1916 at Rutland, 17 miles east-southeast, 240 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
