56 J. HOPEINSON — METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS 



the exposed thermometer at Berkhamsted registered within a degi'ee 

 of the freezing-point. On the 18th the air was unusually dry. 

 At St. Albans, at 1 p.m., the temperature of the air was 77°'8 and 

 the temperature of evaporation 58°'8, showing a relative humidity 

 of 32 per cent. By 3 p.m. this had increased about one per cent., 

 the dry-bulb thermometer reading 80°0, and the wet-bulb 61°'5. 

 At about 5.30 p.m. on the 26th the tower of Christ Church, 

 St. Albans, was struck by lightning in bright simshine, and 

 considerably damaged. There had been a thunderstomi, with hail 

 and heavy rain, earlier in the afternoon. The rain was very 

 heavy in some places ; several streets in Hertford were flooded ; 

 at Southgate, East Bamet, 2*57 inches of rain ft^ll. 



August. — Another very warm month, being only half a degree 

 colder than July, of average humidity and brightness, and with 

 a heavy rainfall on a considerable number of days. Both the days 

 and the nights were warm, but the excess of temperature was 

 more due to the warmth of the days than of the nights, the daily 

 range being therefore greater than usual. It was a sunny month, 

 especially in the earlier half ; no day was sunless. The 4th was 

 the hottest day in the year at every station but New Barnet. On 

 Thursday the 5th there was a very violent thunderstorm, reported 

 as remarkable at lloyston for the deluge of rain and the enormous 

 hailstones which fell, the streets becoming running rivers and some 

 of the houses in the lower part of the town being flooded. Glass 

 in greenhouses also was smashed by the hail. At Tring a young 

 man and woman sheltering from the storm under a tree at the 

 Agricultural Show were killed by the lightning. During a thunder- 

 storm on the 18th, reported from Berlihamsted and St. Albans, 

 rain fell at the former place for eight minutes at the rate of an inch 

 and a quarter an hour. The last day of the month was very 

 stormy. During the morning heavy clouds rapidly drifted before 

 a strong north-westerly wind, the sun shining between each cloud 

 which passed across it ; by midday the whole sky was overcast ; 

 and just after one p.m. a very severe stonn broke over St. Albans, 

 heavy rain and large hailstones falling and doing considerable 

 damage to orchards and gardens. The Ked Lion Hotel at Hatfield 

 was struck by the lightning, a hole being made in the roof of the 

 stables, a window being broken in, and a looking-glass and other 

 articles smashed into pieces. 



September. — About as much colder tlian the average as July and 

 August were warmer, with a rather humid atmosphere and cloudy 

 sky, and a considerable rainfall on an average number of days. 

 The coldness was more due to the days than to the nights, the daily 

 range of temperature being less than usual. There was a con- 

 siderable decrease from August in bright sunshine, but only two 

 or three days were sunless. The first ground-frost of the autumn 

 occurred on the night of the 18th-19th, when the exposed 

 thermometer at Berkhamsted registered one degree of frost. The 

 night of the 23rd-2-lth was unusually warm, the exposed 

 thermometer there not showing a lower temperature than 53°. 



