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TRANSACTIONS OP THE 



Los Angeles greater than Algiers or Malaga, New Orleans or Pensacola. 

 In a multitude of doctors the patient dies, and too many cooks spoil the 

 broth. Now, of the three following records, which, think ye, is correct? If 

 you will kindly turn to page 379 of the State Agricultural Report for 1886, 

 you will find an article on " The Climatology of Southern California," by 

 Dr. H. H. Orme, of Los Angeles, President of the State Board of Health. 

 In that short table he says: u The mean temperature of December, Janu- 

 ary, and February (which are the winter months) is, at Los Angeles, 50.0°." 

 The Signal Service records for ten years, from the winter of 1877-8 to that 

 of 1886-7, both included, gives the mean average winter temperature of 

 those ten years as 53.9°, or in whole numbers 54.0°. 



In your tabulated statement yesterday the average winter temperature is 

 given as 56.6°. We now have three distinct and radically different winter 

 temperatures for that one point. The average of three different sets of 

 figures is 53.4, or not quite as much as the Signal Service figures. I think 

 that the latter is nearer correct than either Dr. Orme's figures or those pub- 

 lished in the " Bee " of yesterday. In a ten-year record the highest winter 

 temperature at Los Angeles was 57.4° in 1885-6, and the lowest was 50.4° in 

 1879-80. A rather singular coincidence is that the mean of the coldest and 

 warmest winter added together and divided by two, gives exactly the mean 

 average winter temperature for ten years, 53.9. The Chief Signal Officer's 

 report for 1885 gives the average yearly temperature at Los Angeles, for 

 seven years, as follows, beginning with 1877 — 60.7°, 60.6°, 58.4°, 61.1°, 60.1°, 

 61.6°, 60.8°; average for seven years, 60.5°. Now, you might take the rec- 

 ords for ten years or seven years and give Los Angeles a black eye by choos- 

 ing the lowest winter mean, 50.4°, and the lowest annual or yearly mean 

 58.4°, and show that for the Los Angeles climate; in a measure, it would be 

 true, but, nevertheless, it would be taking an unfair advantage of that city. 

 The natives of that booming burg might go to the opposite extreme and 

 say their winter temperature is 57.4°, and yearly temperature 61.6. While 

 neither would be a fair representation of facts, they would be true all the 

 same. We therefore find a happy medium in a ten years' average, which 

 gives the winter temperature as being 53.9°. 



The northern citrus belt, where the average winter temperatures are equal, 

 or nearly so, with Los Angeles, are as follows, in round numbers : Oroville, 

 53°, within one degree of Los Angeles ; Orland, 53°; Nicolaus, 51°; Ander- 

 son, way up in Shasta County, is 50°, only four below Los Angeles. You 

 will see then that, instead of Oroville, Thermalito, and Palermo, in Butte 

 County, being only 4° colder in winter than Los Angeles, that but 1° is all 

 the difference that exists. 



During some winters Oroville is the warmest. For instance, the winter 

 temperature of 1884-5 at Oroville was 55.4°, while at Los Angeles the winter 

 temperature was but 54.3°, which was 1.1° colder than the famous citrus 

 belt of northern California. 



The following table gives the Signal Service averages for each season and 

 for the year at Los Angeles, Oroville, California, and Metone. The record 

 for Los Angeles was obtained from the Chief Signal Officer's report, and 

 was deduced from seven years' observations, from 1877 to 1884 : 



