EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART IX 477 



Thursday night was between forty-five and fifty-five miles In a direct 

 fine from Alta a little south of a point due west. 



Fire-balls occur at all seasons and places over the earth, but it is 

 found that February, May and November are noticeable for their fre- 

 quency. They have been_ recorded for more than 2,000 years in history. 

 Specimens of them are found in all the leading museums of the v/orld — 

 they vary in weight from a few ounces to many hundreds of pounds, 

 and some of tons weight are suspected to be of meteoric origin. 



The last detonating one observed here "as on Mn- 2, 1890, at 5:10 

 p. m., in full daylight. This fell near the Minnesota, line in northern 

 Iowa and was the subject of litigation in the courts regarding its owner- 

 ship. 



No special significance attaches to meteors from a weather viewpoint. 

 They are interesting scientifically to estimate the height and density of 

 our atmosphere and indicate that space is strewn with matter which 

 the earth attracts in its onward march around the sun and through the 

 stellar spaces. Possibly they belong to lost comets or are the debris of 

 shattered planets. 



JUNE. 



June, 1917, was cool and wet, the rainfall being the greatest since 1890. 

 In the central and southern divisions many stations had the greatest 

 rainfall of record in June; some had three times the June normal, and 

 30 to 40 per cent of the annual normal. Excessive r3,ins during the first 

 week, particularly in the southern portion, seriously eroded hillsides and 

 overflowed lowlands, destroying thousands of acres of crops. Similar 

 conditions prevailed in the northeastern portion of the State on the 23d- 

 26th. Much of the overflowed land was replanted to corn toward the 

 close of the month and the remainder will be used for various catch 

 crops if seed is available. The last ten days of the month were favorable, 

 but at the close corn averaged 10 days to two weeks late; early oats, 

 rye, barley and winter wheat were heading in the Southern Division; 

 hay short and thin, except alfalfa which was being cut and yielding a 

 fair crop in some sections; potatoes excellent. The warm days at the 

 close of the month brought on a better crop of strawberries than was 

 expected. 



Pressure. — The mean pressure (reduced to sea level) for the State was 

 29.94 inches. The highest recorded was 30.39 inches, at Omaha, Neb., on 

 the 14th, and the lowest was 29.11 at Charles City on the 6th. The 

 monthly range was 1.28 inches. 



Temperature. — The mean temperature for the State, as shown by the 

 records of 106 stations, was 66.0°, or 3.1° lower than the normal. By 

 divisions, three tiers of counties to the division, the means were as fol- 

 lows: Northern, 64.5°, or 3.1° lower than the normal; Central, 66.1°, or 

 3.2° lower than the normal; Southern, 67.4°, or 2.8° lower than the 

 normal. The highest monthly mean was 69.8°, at Thurman, in the ex- 

 treme southwestern part of the State, and the lowest was 61.9°, at Post- 

 ville, in the extreme northeast. The highest temperature reported was 



