234 J. HOPKINSON — THE WEATHER 



considerably warmer than the first lialf. The miuimum 

 temperature was below 32^ on more than half the number of 

 (lavs in tlie month. Up to the 20th there was not a day without 

 rain, snow, or hail at one station or other. The 16th was the 

 wettest day at every station, but one, the 9tli, was equally wet. 

 On the 8th there was a severe, short, and remarkably sudden 

 thunderstorm. At Watford, at about 2-25 p.m., a few very 

 distant peals of thunder were heard, and at 228 there came 

 a vivid flash of lightning with almost instantaneous thunder, 

 and rain, sleet, hail, and then snow followed. The storm only 

 lasted here for seven minutes, but the snow continued for some 

 time, leaving the ground white until the following day. 

 A horse in Watford was struck by the lightning and killed 

 instantaneously, most probably by the first flash, remaining as 

 it stood quite rigid after the cart in which it was harnessed had 

 been removed. The man with it was also struck, and knocked 

 down, but soon recovered from the shock. At Berkhamsted, 

 Mr. Mawley says, there occurred between 2 and 3 "a sudden 

 sharp squall of wind, rain, hail, snow, and sleet, during which 

 the lightning was very vivid, and, judging by the short interval 

 between the lightning and thunder, the centre of the disturbance 

 must have passed almost directly over" the town. It apparently 

 broke directly over Watford, and thence travelled to Berk- 

 hamsted. Mr. P. H. Latham reports that the storm, with snow 

 and hail, came on at Haileybury College, Hertford, at 2.35 p.m. 

 It is also reported from Hitchin and Harpenden as severe and 

 accompanied by snow and hail. 



March. — A month of average weather in almost all respects, 

 the mean temperature, relative humidity, and cloud being 

 exactly the average for our period, and the rainfall a very Little 

 below the average but on rather more than the average number 

 of days. The only exceptional features were the small mean 

 daily range of temperature, the days being colder and the nights 

 warmer than usual, and the excessive warmth of two days, the 

 6th and 7th, the mean temperature of the former at St. Albans 

 being 51-2°, and of the latter 52' 7°, and the maximum on each 

 day being 637°. The three days 15tli to 17tli, after a fortnight's 

 cold weather, and the last day in the month, were also very 

 warm, the temperature being variable throughout the month, 

 and the seven very warm days having an appreciable effect in 

 bringing up the mean temperature to the average. At one or 

 other station rain or snow, sometimes with hail, fell every day 

 from the 8th to the 28th, the falls of snow being very slight, 

 except on the 13th, when the snow was an inch deep. The 1st 

 was the wettest day at 2 stations, the 10th at 37, the 20th at 8, 

 and the 2oth at 7. 



April. — A little colder than usual, with an exceedingly dry 

 atmosphere, a very bright sky, and a very small rainfall on very 

 few days, nearly all after the 20th. The mean daily range of 

 temperature was unusually great, the nights being much colder 



