XX. 



llErORT ox THE RAIXFALL IX HERTFORDSniRE IX 1892. 



By JoHi^ HoPKDfsoN, F.L.S., F.G.S., F.R.Met.Soc. 



Read at Watford, I8th April, 1893. 



There are several alterations in tlie staff of our rainfall observers 

 in the year 1892, but the number of records entered in our prin- 

 cipal table is the same as in the previous year, namely 36. The 

 number of daily records received and utilised in drawing up this 

 report is 27, an increase of tvro upon that for the previous year. 



Five stations disappear from this table, Mr. Francis Ransom 

 having moved his gauge during the year from Bedford Road to 

 Bancroft, Hitehin ; the Rev. W. Qiiennell having left Ti-ing, and 

 the rainfall not being taken by tlie present vicar ; the records from 

 Aldenham House, Elstree, and Brocket Hall, Hatfield, being im- 

 perfect ; and no reply to my applications having been received 

 from the observer at Ikishey Heath. On the other hand five 

 stations are added, records having been received from Odsey ; The 

 Maples, Hitehin; Elm House, Tring; Kytes, Watford; and Harden 

 Hill, Hertford. Odsey is one of our former stations, now re- 

 instated owing to Mr. H. George Fordham's return to England. 

 His gauge is actually in Cambridgeshire, but it is close to the 

 Hertfordshire border, on the narrow neck of land which runs into 

 our county, so that its record is more representative of the rainfall 

 of the north of Herts than it is of that of the south of Cambs. 



These alterations increase the number of stations in the river- 

 district of the Rhee from one to two, and in that of the Mimram 

 from two to three, remove from our table the river-district of the 

 Upper Colne, and reduce the number of stations in that of the 

 Upper Lea from four to three. An observer is much wanted in 

 the neighbourhood of JS^orth Mimms or elsewhere in the district of 

 the Upper Coliie,* and also in that of the Stort. 



Particulars of the 36 rainfall stations, and the monthly and total 

 rainfall and number of days on which at least O'Ol inch of rain 

 fell, are given in Tables I and II, pp. 205-207. 



A supplementaiy table (Table III, p. 204) gives seven other 

 records of the total rainfall in the year. One of these is the 

 composite record of Mr. Ransom, two are the records of additional 

 gauges at Rothamsted, and three are taken from ' British Rainfall, 

 1892.' The remaining record is that referred to in the note below. 



The mean rainfall in the coiinty in the year 1892 was 24 '74 

 inches. This is exactlv two inches below the mean for the decade 

 1880-89, and 1-69 inch below that for the half-century 1840-89.1 

 AVhile the year was therefore a rather dry one on the average 



* "While this paper has been passing throuffh the press, Mr. Arthur Smith, of 

 Sinallfonl, St. Albans, has consented to join the staff of our rainfall observers, 

 and has also obtained for me a record of the rainfall taken in 1892 at Brookmans 

 Park, Hatfield. Both these localities are in the Upper Cdlue district. 



t See ' Trans. Herts. Xat. Hist. Soc.,' Vol. YI, p. 84. 



