XXVIII. 



REPORT ON THE RAINFALL IN HERTFORDSHIRE IN 1880. 



By Rev. C. W. Hakvet, M.A., F.M.S., 



Head at Hertford, 22nd March, 1881. 



Hayino undertaken to prepare in future the annual reports on 

 the llainfall in Hertford shii'e, I shall try as much as possible to 

 follow out the lines laid down by our Honorary Secretary, Mr. 

 Hopkinson, in his reports for the years 1875-79. One advantage 

 I have in commencing at this time is this : We have completed 

 the decade 1870-79, and I have returns for that period from 

 stations well distributed throughout the county, and sufficient in 

 number to enable me to arrive at something approximating to a 

 true mean of the rainfall during this period in the county 

 generally, and in four out of the six main river-basins in 

 particular. 



This mean is derived from the following returns : — Colne 

 District — Cassiobury, Gorhambury, Rothamsted, Kensworth, Nash 

 Mills, Berkhampstead, and Cowroast. Lea District — Bayfordbury, 

 Stevenage, and Much Hadham. Ivel District — Hitchin. Cam 

 District — Roy ston . 



The rainfall stations in the county may be said to be sub- 

 stantially the same both in number and distribution as they were 

 in 1879. The only addition to the list of last year being a new 

 station at Throcking, near Buntingford, which practically takes 

 the place of the old station at Aspenden, where observations were 

 discontinued in 1879. The districts pointed out by Mr. Hopkinson 

 in his report for 1878 as needing observers, remain, I am sorry to 

 say, still unrepresented ; these are the river-basins of the Thame 

 and Brent as far as they are connected with our county ; the Chess 

 district in the basin of the Colne ; and the Stort district in the 

 basin of the Lea. 



Distribution of Rainfall througJwut the Year. — Of the three tables 

 accompanying this report, Table II. gives the actual monthly and 

 annual fall at each of our 27 stations, and the mean monthly and 

 yearly fall in the county ; showing moreover its relation to the 

 mean of 1870-79. These figures show that the three months, 

 January, May, and August, were very much below the mean ; 

 while the three months, July, September, and October, were very 

 much in excess of the mean. The total rainfall of January, May, 

 and August averaged only 1'85 in. or 6 per cent, of the total fall; 

 while that of July, September, and October averaged as much as 

 15'40 ins., or 50 per cent, of the total fall. At Bushey Station, 

 Watford, on October 21st, the gauge showed 5"07 inches; this 

 amount was due to the snow drifting over a wall about 30 feet 

 from the gauge. Therefore in deducing the mean fall for October 

 and for the whole year, I have omitted in these two instances the 

 Bushey Station values altogether. 



