312 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



Weather for March, 1887. 



The following special bulletin for March has been issued from Signal 

 Service Headquarters in San Francisco, by Lieut. J. E. Maxfield, U. S. A., 

 Signal Officer and Assistant in charge: 



Weather — The month just passed presents few marked features. Only 

 one storm of any violence appeared on the Pacific Coast. This passed 

 over Washington Territory to the east on the fifth, accompanied by severe 

 local windstorms in the valley of the Columbia River. Rain fell in North- 

 ern California on the second, third, fourth, and seventeenth; in Southern 

 California on the third. In Oregon and Washington Territory the month 

 divides itself into two periods — the first marked by a copious rainfall, 

 extending from the first to the fifteenth; the second marked by dry weather, 

 broken by occasional light rains, extending from the sixteenth to the end 

 of the month. 



Temperature — The temperature has been above the normal temperature 

 for March in all of the Pacific Coast districts. The departure from the 

 normal is greatest in Central California, where it amounts to three and 

 one half degrees. Thence it diminishes in all directions, becoming one 

 degree in Northern Washington Territory and along the coast of Cali- 

 fornia. 



Rainfall — The rainfall for the month has been above the average in 

 Washington Territory and Northern Oregon, and below the average in 

 California and Southern Oregon. The most marked departures from the 

 normal are as follows: Above the normal — Olympia, 5.2 inches; Portland^ 

 1.6 inches. Below the normal — Sacramento, 2.1 inches; San Francisco, 

 3.2 inches; Los Angeles, 2.4 inches. The following table shows in detail 

 the amount and distribution of the rainfall for the month and season: 



