196 RAINFALL AT CLIFTON IN 1889. 



Remarks. — The year 1889 was on the whole a dry year. 

 The total downfall was barely 30J inches, against a long 

 average of about 34 inches. The two driest months of the 

 year were January and June, each of which showed a 

 deficiency of over two inches. June was a splendid month, 

 with twenty-four rainless days, and a total fall scarcely 

 exceeding half an inch. It was the driest June recorded at 

 this station in 37 years. The last five months of the year 

 were all below the average, in varying degrees — August only 

 slightly ; September, October, and November considerably. 

 From August 22nd to September 18th dry weather prevailed 

 with little interruption. October presented the paradox of 

 a deficient rainfall with an unusually large number of 

 " rainy " days. The weather was very unsettled thronghout 

 the month, and the falls of rain, al though seldom heavy, were 

 very frequent. November also was somewhat inconsistent 

 with itself. As regards the number of rainless days, it was 

 but little behind June, and it included a period of eighteen 

 days of almost absolute drought ; yet such was the prevail- 

 ing humidity of the air, that the surface of the ground was at 

 no time completely dry. 



Specially wet months in 1889 were March, April, and July 

 — a circumstance the more noteworthy, in regard to March 

 and April, because these months, with Eebruary, constitute, 

 on an average, the driest portion of the year. March will 

 be long remembered in the low-lying parts of Bristol for its 

 disastrous floods, a repetition of which was threatened in 

 the early part of April. In the forty-eight hours elapsing 

 between midnight of March 6-7 and midnight of March 

 •8-9 the downfall was about 3*2 inches ; or, if we take into 

 account the melting of the residue of a previous snow-storm, 

 we may estimate the quantity of water to be disposed of 

 as equivalent to 33 inches of rain falling in sixty hours. On 



