60 Transactions of the Kansas 



METEOROLOGICAL SUMMARY FOR 1875. 



PROF. F. H. SNOW'S ANNUAL REPORT AS METEOROLOGIST TO THE 

 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Station: Lawrence, Kansas; latitude 38° .^8'; longitude 95° 16'; elevation of ba- 

 rometer and thermometers, 884 feet above the sea level, and 14 feet above the 

 ground; rain gauge on the ground; anemometer 105 feet above the ground, on 

 the dome of the University building, 1,150 feet above the sea level. 



The following features of the weather of 1875 deserve special notice: 



1. The very low mean temperatures of January and February, and the generally 

 low mean temperatures of the remaining months of the year, except December, 

 which was remarkably warm, being more than 12° warmer than the December 

 average, and nearly 4° warmer than November. 



2. The large deficiency in the rainfall for the months of August, September, 

 October and November. The rains during the preceding months had been abun- 

 dant, though not excessive, so that the subsequent deficiency did not in the least 

 interfere with the proper growth and maturity of immense crops throughout the 

 State. We have here an excellent illustration of the principle, to which attention 

 was called in my report for the year 1871, that a comparatively small amount of 

 rain well distributed is much better than a larger amount unfavorably distributed. 



3. The extremely small amount of snow is a marked meteorological peculiarity 

 of the year. 



4. We have a splendid example of the great advantage possessed by the State of 

 Kansas in the long period of absence of severe frosts, so that a disaster occurring 

 to the crops in the early part of the summer, may be fully retrieved by a second, 

 third, or even a fourth planting. On the 15th of June, a large portion of Eastern 

 Kansas had been shorn of vegetation, by the plague of the locusts. Yet corn 

 planted from that date up to the 10th of July, in the desolated districts, yielded 

 bountiful crops, the first severe frost of autumn occurring on the 30th of October, 

 too late to damage the well-ripened ears. 



The following is a summary of the weather for the year: 



TEMPERATURE. 



Mean temperature of the year, 50°. 60, which is 2°. 53 below the mean of the seven 

 preceding j^ears. The highest temperature was 99°, on the 22d of June. The 

 lowest temperature was 16°. 5 below" zero, on the 9th of January. Mean tempera- 

 ture at 7 a.m., 44°.2; at 2 p.m., 60°.2; at 9 p.m., 48°.8. 



Mean temperature of the winter months, 25.°62 — 3°. 19 below the average; of the 

 spring, 50°. 60 — 2°. 70 below the average; of the summer, 74°. 87 — 2°. 17 below the 

 average; of the autumn, 51°. 49 — 1''.04 below the average. 



The coldest month of the year was January — the coldest January, and the coldest 

 month on our record — with mean temperature 15°. 60; the coldest week was January 

 8th-14th, with mean temperature 1°.94; the coldest days were January 13th and 

 14th, with mean temperature 7°. 7 below zero. The mercury fell below zero 12 

 times, 9 of which were in January and 3 in February. 



