VII. 



EErORT OX niEXOLOGICAL PIIEXOMEXA OBSERVED IN 

 HERTFOUUSlllRE DURIXG THE YEAR 1897. 



By Edward :^^,v^vLKY, Soc.R.Met.Soc, F.R.H.S. ; 

 riieuological Recorder to the Royal Meteorological Society. 



Bend at Watford, 26fh Jpril, 1898. 



No observations liave bo(>n received from Hatfield, otherwise the 

 list of observers remains the same as in the tA\ o previous reports. 

 At the present time an observer is still much wanted in the 

 neighbourhood of Bi.shoi)'s Stortford in the east of the county, and 

 another in the neighbourhood of Buntingford in the north-east, these 

 localities being as yet altogether unrepresented. 



In the following table will be found the list of observers, the 

 districts they represent, and the approximate height of the stations 

 above sea-level : — 



Station. 



Watford (The Platts) 



Radlett (Xewberries) 



Broxbourne CWormley) 



St. Albans (The Grange) 



St. Albans (Addiscombe Lodge) 



St. Albans (Worley Road) 



Berkhamsted (Rosebank) 



Hertford 



Harpenden 



Hitchin 



Ashwell (Odsey) 



Observek. 



Mrs. G. E. Bishop. 



Miss E. M. Lubbock. 



A. Warner. 



Mrs. J. Hopkinsou. 



Miss E. F. Smith. 



Henry I>e\vi8. 



Mrs. E. Mawley. 



W. Graveson. 



J. J. Willis. 



J. E. Little, M.A. 



H. G. Fordham. 



The Wintee of 1896-97. 



Regarded as a whole, the winter of 1896-97 was about season- 

 able in temperature. There occurred, however, one cold period in 

 January, lasting over a fortnight, when the thermometer exposed 

 on the lawn indicated on each night from 4 to 21 degrees of frost. 

 About the middle of this frost, snow fell at Berkhamsted to the 

 depth of nearly eight inches. To give some idea as to the 

 protection afforded to low-growing vegetation by such a covering, 

 it may be mentioned that when this fall of snow had shrunk to 

 four inches deep, a thermometer placed beneath it registered on 

 one night 1 1 degrees less cold than a similar thermometer resting 

 on its surface. In complete contrast to January, February proved 

 a very mild winter month ; indeed, the wannest February for eleven 

 years. 



A great deal of rain fell in December, and more than usual 

 during February ; but in January the rainfall (including melted 

 snow) was light. The winter, besides being wet, was also 



