XXVI. 



REPORT ON PEEXOLOGICAL PHENOMEXA OBSERVED IN 

 HERTFORDSHIRE DURING THE YEAR 1896. 



By Edwaed Mawlet, Pres.R.Met.Soc, F.E.H.S., 

 Phenological Recorder to the Royal Meteorological Society. 



Read at Watford, 30th April, 1897. 



The list of observing stations remains the same as in the previous 

 report. The only hicalitios where new observers are at the 

 present time still greatly needed are those in the neighbourhood 

 of Bishop's Stortford in the east, and Buntingford in the north- 

 east. If these gaps in the distril)ution of the stations coidd only 

 be filled up, the organization for the county might be regarded as 

 sufficiently complete. 



The following table gives the names of the observers, the districts 

 they represent, and the approximate height of the stations above 

 sea-level : — 



Station. 



Watford (The Plaits) 



Radlett (Xewberries) 



Broxbourne (Wormley) 



St. Albans (The Grauge) 



St. Albans (Addiscombe Lodge) 



St. Albans (\\^)rley Road) 



Bei-khamsted (Rosebauk) 



Hatfield (Symouds Hyde) 



Hertford 



Harpenden 



Hitchin 



Ashwell (Odsey) 



Observer. 



Mrs. G. E. Bishop. 

 Miss E. M. Lubbock. 

 Miss L. Warner. 

 Mrs. J. Hopkinson. 

 Miss E. F. Smith. 

 Henry Lewis. 

 Mrs. E. Mawley. 

 T. Brown. 

 W. Graveson. 

 J. J. Willis. 

 J. E. Little, M.A. 

 H. G. Fordham. 



The Winter of 1895-96. 



Taken as a whole this was a very warm winter, the only 

 other recent winter with as high a mean temperatiu'e being that 

 of 1893-94. Kot only did the weather continue unseasonably 

 warm, as a rule, but there also occurred very few really cold 

 nights. Only towards the end of Febniary did the thermometer 

 exposed on my lawn at Berkhamsted show more than 13 degrees 

 of fi'ost, and even then the lowest reading registered by it was 

 only 17 degrees below the freezing-point. In December there 

 was nearly a seasonable quantity of rain, but taking January and 

 February together, the fall was lighter than for the same two 

 months in any of the previous 41 years, which is as far back as 

 the Berkhamsted rainfall records extend. Although this winter 



