The Castleton 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.
Chance of showers
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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.
Castleton’s center stands about 480 ft above sea level. Within three miles the land runs from 380 ft to 1,260 ft, a difference of 880 ft: hilly country. The highest named summit within 15 miles is Tinmouth Mountain, about 2,820 ft, 14 miles south-southeast.
The section below crosses 12 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.
Phyllite. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 10 mi of the line.
Shale, phyllite, limestone. Age: Late Ordovician, 445 to 459 million years old. About 4 mi of the line.
Graywacke, siltstone. Age: Neoproterozoic, 542 to 1,000 million years old. About 2 mi of the line.
Slate, phyllite. Age: Cambrian, 487 to 542 million 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.
Shale, phyllite, limestone. Age: Late Ordovician, 445 to 459 million years old. About 1 mi of the line.
From the USGS State Geologic Map Compilation (Horton and others, 2017), the states’ geologic maps joined at a common scale. 6 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 Castleton reaches the St. Lawrence River by way of the Castleton, the Poultney and the Richelieu: about 230 river miles. The St. Lawrence carries it on to the Atlantic.
Lake on the way: Lake Champlain.
100 miles of the trip are on the Poultney.
Traced down the USGS NHDPlus V2.1 river network from the Census center point of Castleton; river miles along the main stem, rounded.
Castleton 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 Castleton 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, 10 miles east, 140 ft higher. NOAA, through RCC-ACIS.
