408 Eighth Annual Report of the 



treatises of *Schott and fBlodjjett. The istatistios of climate in 

 thd vicinity of New York citj were iconsolidttted and employed in 

 special investigation® -bj' Dr. Daniel Draper, DirectO'r of the New 

 York Meteoro logical Observatorv. 



The accoimpanying tables and charts are intended to igive in 

 themselves a fairly complete account of the climate of the State, 

 the text dealing miainly with the causes of the more important 

 features thus shown. The relations of climate toi plant growth 

 and to sanitary conditions are barely touched upon, as results 

 of value can be expected only from a thorough treatment of these 

 subjects by specialists. Some topics which properly belong to a 

 description of local climate are also necessarily omitted, or but 

 briefly considered. Thus, no satisfactory account could be giren 

 of the irregularities to which rainfall is subject or of the rates of 

 flow during storms, 'since the work of several years will be re- 

 quired to collect and properly disicuiss such data for the entire 

 State. 



The writer desires to expresis his indebtedness to Professor E. A. 

 Fuertes. Director of the State Meteorological Bureau, for the use 

 'of records and iresults on file lat the Central Office, and also to 

 many pereons named in the body of this report who have con- 

 tributed valuable data in response to Inquiries. Special acknow- 

 ledgment is due to Mr. I. W. Brewer, who provided copies of a 

 large number of manuscript records used in thfe Investigation 

 while on duty as an officer of the State Bureau. 



I. GENERAL CLIMATIC INFLUENCES. 



Before proceeding to deal with the climate of the State proper 

 it may be of interest to glance briefly at certain general meteoro- 

 logical influences to; which our local conditions (are mainly due. 



The prevalence of westerly winds is the most lobvious and per- 

 manent feature of the atmospheric circulation in the imiddle lati- 

 tudes of the globe. This movement of the air masses in a measure 

 oommunicates the conditions of the continental interiors toi the 



* Atmospheric Temperaliiro and Precipitation in the. United States, by C. A. Schott. 

 Snaithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, vols., Washington, 1870 and 1881. 

 t ClinaatoloKy of the United States, by Lorin Blodgett, Philadelphia, 1857. 



