Exeter
Exeter Geography & Climate
Geography
Exeter stands at the point where the Exeter River drops over a fall and becomes the tidal Squamscott, about fifteen kilometres inland from the Atlantic.
The head of tide
This is the town’s reason for existing. Above the falls the river is fresh and provided water power for mills; below them it is tidal and salt, and was navigable by coastal shipping. A settlement at that junction could mill grain and timber and ship the product out, and almost every old New England town of this type sits on the same kind of site.
Great Bay
The Squamscott flows into Great Bay, an unusual inland tidal estuary some fifteen kilometres from the open sea, connected by a narrow tidal river. It is a nationally designated estuarine reserve, with salt marsh, eelgrass beds and large wintering populations of waterfowl, and the tidal range and current through the connecting channel are considerable.
Low and glaciated
The seacoast region of New Hampshire is low, rolling and covered in glacial till and marine clay, with granite bedrock beneath and outcrops at the surface. It is the flattest part of a mountainous state.
The short coast
New Hampshire has only about 29 kilometres of ocean shoreline, the shortest of any coastal American state, and Exeter is a few minutes from most of it.
The falls and the swing bridge
The drop in the middle of the town is small — a few metres over a ledge of rock — but it is the exact line between the two river systems, and standing on the bridge you can watch fresh water falling into water that rises and falls twice a day. A swing bridge downstream once let masted vessels through to the wharves above it.
Woods
Second-growth pine and hardwood, on land largely farmed and then abandoned.
Climate Patterns
Exeter has a humid continental climate, moderated slightly by its closeness to the Atlantic.
Summer
June to August is warm and moderately humid, with highs of 26 to 28°C and cool nights around 15°C. Genuinely hot spells happen but are short, and the sea breeze occasionally reaches this far inland. It is a comfortable summer climate by American standards.
Winter
December to March is cold: highs of 1 to 4°C and lows well below freezing, with around 150 centimetres of snow in an average year. Nor’easters are the characteristic winter storm, spinning up along the coast and bringing heavy snow, coastal flooding and wind. Being near the ocean means Exeter sometimes sits on the rain-snow line, which is a mixed blessing.
Autumn
The best season by some distance. September and October bring clear, dry, warm days and cold nights, and the cold nights are what produce the colour — sugar maple, red maple, birch and oak turning through late September and October, peaking here in the first half of October.
Spring
Late and reluctant, with mud season in April.
Why the colour is so good
New England’s autumn depends on a particular combination: a high proportion of sugar and red maple, warm sunny days that keep sugars in the leaf, and cold but not freezing nights that trap them there, which produces the reds. A dry late summer intensifies it and an early hard frost ends it, so the display varies year to year and is forecast accordingly.
Rainfall
Around 1,150 millimetres a year excluding snow, spread evenly.