XXIII. 



REPORT OX PIIEXOLOGICAI> PIIKXOMEXA OBSERVED IX 

 IIEUTFOKDSIURE DCTRIXG THE YEAR 1899. 



By Edward Mawley, Soc. 11. Met. Soc, F.R.H.S. 



Read at Watford, lOth April, 1900. 



TriE only chrrage in tbo list of observing stations since the 

 la^^t report was issued has been the addition of a new station at 

 "Wealdstoue close to the southern limits of the county, so that 

 the observers remain as evenly distributed over Hertfordshire as 

 before. In fact, the only part of the county altogether unrepre- 

 sented is the neighbourhood of Buntingford. 



The following table gives the list of observers, the districts 

 they represent, and the approximate height of the stations above 

 sea-level : — 



The Winter or 1898-99. 



The weather of this winter was chiefly remarkable for its 

 continued high temperature and the unusually good record of bright 

 sunshine, the average duration being about 2i hours a day. 

 Considering the season, the number of frosty nights was small, and 

 at no time did the thermometer exposed on the lawn register more 

 than 18 degrees of frost. There were rather more than the usual 

 number of rainy days, but the total rainfall was not much in excess 

 of the average. The sun shone at Berkhamsted for altogether 20 1 

 hours, or for a longer time than in any other winter during the 

 15 years over which my sunshine-records extend. 



Notwithstanding the fi'equent falls of rain, all the seasonable 

 operations on the farm were carried out with but little hindrance 

 from the weather. This was no doubt owing to the subsoil having 

 become so extremely dry through the preceding summer and early 

 autumn di-ought, that all superfluous moistui-e in the surface -soil 



