250 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



MONTHLY METEOROLOGICAL SYNOPSIS FOR THE YEAR 1884. 



January — Was a wintry month for this climate; chilly, cold, frosty 

 mornings, with frequent storms of rain and hard showers. The usual 

 phenomena attending changeable weather were very marked and 

 extremes reached. The casual phenomena, more particularly marked, 

 was the appearance of the "Pon's Comet," which had been so long 

 looked for, was plainly seen on the evening of the fourteenth, in the 

 southwestern horizon, at an altitude of about forty degrees. Astron- 

 omical science had predicted the return of this comet in January, 

 1884, after an absence of a little more than threescore years and ten. 

 It making its appearance as predicted was surely a triumph of science, 

 and a great gratification to its votaries. As seen in Oakland, it ap- 

 peared to the eye like a star of the second magnitude, indefinitely 

 luminous. The tail looked several degrees in length, pointing towards 

 the zenith, wider than the nucleus, seemingly made up of parallel 

 rays, the center rays the longest, terminating in a sharp feathery 

 point. Luminous sun-risings and sun-settings were quite frequent, 

 and a number of them were gorgeous to behold. They were more 

 brilliant after the cold frosty weather began to abate, and the 

 barometer was marking very high in its readings; especially when 

 the atmosphere was warming up a few days previous to the heavy 

 rains that occurred from the twenty-fifth to the end of the month. 



February — Like the preceding month, was decidedly wintry. On 

 the seventh a light fall of sleet and snow fell at 3 o'clock a. m., 

 which covered the foothills white with snow, and a few following 

 days and nights were the coldest of Winter; mud froze in the streets 

 sufficiently strong to hold up buggies and their occupants as they 

 rode over this very unusual condition of the streets; water-pipes in 

 some localities froze and bursted. On the twelfth and thirteenth in 

 shady places it froze all day; ice formed in shallow pools of water 

 one inch in thickness; a gale of wind prevailed from the northeast, 

 filling the air with dust, sand, and a disagreeable chilliness piercing 

 and biting to those who were compelled to be out of doors. Rain 

 began on the fourteenth, which modified the temperature of the 

 atmosphere, and on the fifteenth. the rain fell in very hard showers, 

 with a barometer reading of 29.36. Luminous sunsets were seen a 

 number of times during the extreme cold weather, and preceding the 

 high winds and storms. 



March — Very rainy all the month; showers or light rain nearly 

 every day. On the twenty-fifth very hard showers early a. m., showery 

 all day; at 4:45 o'clock p. m., quite a severe earthquake occurred, 

 vibration from northeast to southwest; buildings trembled, win- 

 dows and crockery rattled in some localities. At 9:25 o'clock p. m. 

 a vivid flash of lightning came, followed in quick succession with a 

 loud peal of thunder; rain and hail fell for a few minutes very hard; 

 some telegraph poles in the city were struck by lightning, split from 

 top to bottom and broken off"; the City Hall fire-bell was rung by the 

 electric fluid, as it played with the wires of the Fire Department. 



April — A pleasant month, with a large rainfall and growing weather. 

 An earthquake occurred on the seventeenth, at 9:40 o'clock p. m.; a 

 low rumbling noise accompanied it, and a sudden jog from the north- 

 west towards the southeast; no perceptible vibration was noticed. 

 Another light shock of an earthquake occurred at 11:30 o'clock a. m. 

 on the twentieth; no vibration. 



