232 J. HOPKINSON THE CLIMATE OF "WATFORD. 



The only year with a small rainfall (1884) •was much tlie 

 warmest'; the year with the largest rainfall (1879) was much the 

 coldest. (See also under " Temperature," p. 224.) 



Spring is the di'iest season, autumn the wettest, and there is 

 rather more rain in summer than in winter, but winter has the 

 greatest number of wet days. 



The fall of rain varies most in summer, least in spring ; the 

 wettest summer having had nearly five times as much rain as the 

 driest, but the wettest spring not three times as much as the driest. 



March is much the driest month; October is the wettest, but 

 November is nearly as wet. While the cliiference between the 

 mean rainfall of March and that of October or November is nearly 

 an inch and a half, there is not a difference of half an inch 

 between the mean rainfall of any of the other months. 



The least fall of rain in any season was 3"34 ins. in the summer 

 of 1885, the least in any month was 0*32 in. in July, 1885 ; the 

 greatest fall of rain in any season was 15 "72 ins. in the summer 

 of 1879, the greatest in any month was 6'10 ins. in October, 1882 ; 

 the greatest in any day (of 24 hours, ending 9 a.m. on following 

 day) was 1-99 in. on 30th June, 1878. 



Palls of rain exceeding one inch in 24 hours have occurred on 

 fourteen occasions, their average being 1-37 inch. 



Absolute di'oughts (periods of more than fourteen consecutive 

 days without rain) have occurred on ten occasions, their average 

 duration being seventeen days. The longest was twenty-three 

 days, from 8th to 30th March, 1880. 



Exceftional Pheyiomena. — Phenomena of occasional occurrence 

 giving but little indication of climate, a few only of the most 

 remarkable will be here enumerated, in chronological order. 



In 1878 " the Eumlice sqiiall " of 24th March was severely felt 

 at Watford ; one of the highest floods on record occurred on 11 th 

 April ; our heaviest rainfall, on 30th June, caused a very destruc- 

 tive flood, the east of Hertfordshire suffering most severely; and 

 a winter of exceptionally long duration commenced on 27th October. 

 In 1879 a terrific thunderstorm occurred on 2nd August, and 

 1-20 in. of rain fell in three hours. In 1880, in the five days 1 1th 

 to loth September, 4 "79 ins. of rain fell. In 1881 the mean tem- 

 perature of January was only 29°-2 ; there was a very heavy 

 snowstorm on the 1 8th of that month ; and a very destructive gale 

 on 14th October. In 1882 a severe gale on 29th April brought 

 with it sea-spray, and caused great destruction to foliage. In 

 1884 a series of veiy severe thunderstonns occurred in July; and 

 the mean temperature of August was as high as 65°'6. And in 

 1886 there were serious floods in May. 



All these occurrences, and many others of an exceptional nature, 

 are noticed more or less fully in our ' Transactions,' either in my 

 annual reports or in special papers. 



