XVII. 



RErORT ON niEXOLOGICAL PHENOMENA OBSERVED IN 

 HERTFORDSHIRE DURING THE YEAR 1898. 



By Edward Mawley, Sec. R. Met. Soc, F.R.H.S. 



Eead at Watford, 28th March, 1899. 



In no prcA-ious year have the Society's observing stations been 

 quite as evenly distributed over the county as in that to vrhich the 

 present report has reference. In fact, the only part of Hertford- 

 shire which is now altogether unrepresented is the neighbourhood 

 of Buntingford. Since the last report was issued the Society has 

 lost an observer at Eadlett and another at St. Albans (Addiscombe 

 Lodge), but on the other hand two new stations have been started, 

 one at Chesham (Bucks) and the other at Sawbridge worth, a part 

 of the county -^here an observer has been for some j-ears greatly 

 needed. The Hattield observations, which were missing from the 

 last report, have, I am pleased to say, been resumed. 



The following table contains the list of observers, the districts 

 they I'epresent, and the approximate height of the stations above 

 sea-level : — 



The Winter of 1897-98. 



This was a remarkably waiTU and dry winter. The only frosty 

 periods occurred at Christmas and at the end of February, and 

 they lasted on each occasion but a few days. So mild was the 

 season throughout that at no time did the thermometer exposed on 

 my lawn at Berkhamsted show more than 15 degrees of frost — its 

 average extreme minimum for the preceding eleven winters being 

 25 degrees of fi-ost. The December rainfall was in excess of the 

 average, but duiing Januaiy and Februaiy the weather continued 

 unusually thy. 



The autumn-sowTi corn crops made steady progress during the 

 season, but it was only here and there that they were so forward 



