348 transactions of the 



Meteorological Record for January, 1888. 



By H. Aeents, of the U. S. V. Signal Service. 



During the present month a cold wave passed over the State, commenc- 

 ing on the fourth. The reading of the thermometer on that morning was 

 30°. On the morning of the fifth the weather moderated; at 6:30 a. m. it 

 was 38°, and at 7:30 a. m. a snowstorm set in, lasting three hours. At 

 times the snow fell fast and in large flakes, melting as it reached the 

 ground, not leaving a trace, except on sheds and wooden structures. This 

 was the first flake of snow seen falling in Oroville since February 11, 1884, 

 then half an inch remaining on the ground. January sixth the thermome- 

 ter again fell to 30°, and from date until the eighteenth it was below the 

 freezing point at the 6:30 a. m. reading taken from my self-registering 

 minimum thermometer. Nine of these days the readings ranged from 20° 

 to 29°; 2 days at 30°; 1 at 31°, and 1 at 32°. The day of the snowstorm 

 was the only one out of the fourteen days that the thermometer was above 

 the freezing point. In a conversation with Judge Lott, who has been a 

 resident of the eastern part of Butte County since 1849, he says he remem- 

 bers the cold wave of January, 1854, and agrees with me that in the cold 

 wave of January, 1888, there were more continuous cold days and lower 

 temperature than there was in January, 1854, and we consider the month 

 just past the coldest experienced in this section of the State since gold 

 was discovered in California. 



The mean temperature for January, 1888, was 45.41°, the lowest I have 

 any record of. The average for the previous three years was 50.42°, show- 

 ing that January, 1888, was 5° below. The highest temperature was 65°, 

 on the thirtieth, 5° below the average. Lowest was on the fourteenth, 20°; 

 this is 13° below the average for January. Highest barometer was 30.52, 

 on the seventeenth, the highest I have ever recorded; lowest, 29.44; mean, 

 30.05. Number of clear days, 11; cloudy, 17; fair, 3. It rained on the 

 first, second, fifth, nineteenth, twentieth, twenty-first, twenty-second, 

 twenty-third, twenty-fifth, twenty-seventh, twenty-eighth, twenty-ninth, 

 thirty-first; sprinkled on the twenty-fourth; rainfall, 7.72; season to date, 

 11.71; last season, 4.68; excess, 7.63. Prevailing winds, southerly; num- 

 ber of days from the E., 1; S.E., 12; S.W., 3; N.W., 7; W., 2; N.E., 2; 

 S., 1. Hard frosts, 13. 



RECAPITULATION. 



Mean temperature, 45.41°; maximum temperature, 65°; minimum tem- 

 perature, 20°. Clear days, 11; cloudy days, 17; fair days, 3. Rainfall, 

 7.72 inches; season to date, 11.71 inches. Frosts, 13. 



