( XII ) 



METEOROLOGY. 



January began with cold frosty weather ; a warm time set in on 

 the 4th day and continued till the IGth, during which period, 

 though the weather was mild, the sky was cloudy, and the wind 

 blowing a gale. From the 17th January to the end of the quarter, 

 with the exception of short intervals at the beginning and end of 

 February, the weather was cold for the season, sometimes to an 

 unpleasant degree. In a cold period in January the temperature of 

 the air was as low as 20° at many places ; in February from 13° to 

 20° in many places, and as low as 8° at Birmingham ; and in March 

 at the equinox it was as low as 23°. In January and February 

 snowstorms were frequent, and extended all over England and 

 Scotland. At the end of February the weather was extremely wild 

 and stormy; and March was cold and ungcnial throughout. The 

 mean temperature of January at Greenwich was 36-3° ; that of 

 February and also that of March 80-6°, each being below the average 

 of the corresponding periods in twenty-four years, and the mean 

 temperature of March being as much as 5"4° below the average- 

 Usually Februar}^ is 2° and I\Iarch 5° warmer than January ; but 

 this year the increase was not obtained. To find a March equally 

 cold, it is necessary to go back to 1845, 1837, and 1814, when the 

 mean temperature was above 3o° and below 3G°. In 1785 it was 

 33 "9°. Towards the end of last century that month was oftener 

 remarkable for extreme coldness than it has been in later times. 



The unusually severe weather of !March interrupted agricultural 

 operations and checked vegetation ; on 5th April this wintiy weather 

 ceased suddenly ; and till 1 0th June, during a period of sixty-seven 

 days, the temperature was, with few exceptions, above the average, 

 the average daily excess being nearly 5°; and the quarter was 

 closed by a period of twenty days in which intervals of cold and 

 warm weather succeeded each other, but with a predominance of 

 cold. The high summer temperature of April urged vegetation to 

 rapid growth, and soon efiaced the traces of a backward season. 

 Eain, which had been much needed, fell early in May, and in the 

 second week of that month over the whole of the British islands. 

 The mean temperature was above the average in each month, 

 remarkably above it in April and Ma}^ The mean temperature of 

 the quarter was 56*2 at Greenwich ; and there is no record of any 

 previous instance in which it was so high in the same period of the 

 year. There was 7*2 in. of rain. The fall Avas deficient in April ; 

 above the average in May and June. The air was unusually dry; 

 for though there was a great deal of rain in May, it fell in showers 

 which were heavy, but of short duration. 



